State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said that metro Augusta set records for jobs, employed residents and work force total during 2017.  

The seven-county metropolitan statistical area, which includes the counties of Burke, Columbia, Lincoln, McDuffie, Richmond and Aiken and Edgefield in South Carolina, ended the year with almost 7,000 new jobs, thousands more employed residents and a much larger work force. The unemployment rate fell by .5 percent. Augusta ranked second in Georgia for job creation among 14 MSAs tracked by the GDOL.

“This is a very good year for the Augusta area,” Butler said. “All of the major indicators trended in the right direction. In fact, records were set.  I’m expecting the same will continue in 2018.”

In December metro Augusta added 2,000 new jobs to end the year with a record-high 246,000. The number grew by 6,900 over the year. The previous record was 244,000 in November. Most of the job growth came in a number of industries such as professional and business services, education and health services, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing and construction and local government.

The metro area also added 2,344 more employed residents last month. Metro Augusta ended the year with a record 259,892 employed residents, up by 8,625 in 2017. The previous record high was 258,113 recorded last September.

Metro Augusta’s labor force, the number of residents with jobs and those unemployed but actively looking for work, grew by 2,679 in December. Augusta ended the year with a record-high 272,422, up by 7,571 in 2017. The previous record high was 270,895 recorded last July.  

In December, workers filed 1,575 initial claims for unemployment insurance, up by 36 percent from the previous month. Claims are up by 5.5 percent when compared to December 2016. Most of the annual increase in claims came in administrative and support services.  

Meanwhile, the metro area’s unemployment rate fell from 5.1 percent to 4.6 over the 12-month cycle. The December rate, at 4.6 percent, was up from the previous month by .1 percent.