Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics adjusted employment numbers for Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the U.S. to accommodate updated information and census data. The revisions go back to 2020. For Augusta, this meant a revision downwards of employment numbers totaling 6,000 over the last four years. Employment in December 2024 was 246,900, 1,500 less than previously reported. The revisions were particularly prominent in the last year with 2,800 fewer jobs now being recorded. The good news is that employment did increase to 247,400 in January which is the second highest level on record, after July 2024, in the new data.
In other closely watched employment news, federal government employment remained at 10,100 in the Augusta MSA as it has been since May 2024. The history of federal employment in the Augusta MSA shows a decline in the early 90’s to between 7,000-7,500. Federal employment increased around the time of the financial crisis in 2007-2009 and again after the COVID recession, each time peaking at 10,200 employees.
Although the number of employees has increased by about 3,000 over the last 20 years, federal government employees are fairly stable at around 4 percent of all employees in the Augusta MSA in the last 15 years, but about one percentage point higher than 20 years ago.
Nationally, federal employees represent 2.0 percent of all employees. Federal employees have not represented more than 4 percent of all US employees since 1970.
