The February jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor just released, and the news isn’t great. The report says the nation lost about 92,000 jobs in January. A key economic indicator in Georgia shows the state has seen its share of lost jobs, too.
Georgia companies with at least 100 workers began the year by shedding over 1,700 jobs. That’s according to the records Georgia keeps in compliance with the federal WARN Act.
For perspective, hat’s twice as many big layoffs as in the previously worst January in the past decade.
Thomas Smith is aneconomist at the Goizueta Business School at Emory university. He said these early Georgia layoffs were likely made to offset tariff costs, despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that most of the Trump administration’s tariffs were illegal. But Smith said layoffs might continue now because of rising fuel costs stoked by the Iran war.
“What I’m really worried about, is that fuel prices are going up, oil prices going up, creating additional anxiety for companies,” Smith said. “Deciding ‘Oh, you know what? Yeah, let’s — let’s fire another 100 workers.'”
Big February layoffs eased a bit from January, to a little over 1,200. But in the first filing for March, 958 jobs at the SK Battery plant in Commerce were announced.
And so even just a week into March, that means more Georgia layoffs for the first three months of the year in the history of WARN Act record keeping, with the exception 2020 and its job losses driven by COVID.
