Costs of food, energy, and other related necessities around Atlanta saw modest decreases over the final few months of 2023, prompting consumers to start 2024 with comparably lower prices, particularly for clothing, dairy products, and gasoline.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Atlanta metropolitan statistical area ended last year with consumer prices about 3.6 percent higher compared to prices from the year before, but seven-tenths of a percentage point lower than those seen four months prior.
Prices on a national scale, however, have increased steadily month-to-month all throughout 2023, only staying the same from September to October.
2023 marked the first year since 2019 where prices for goods in the metro area declined continuously from August to December, dropping six tenths of a percentage point during the first two months and another tenth of a percentage point by the end of the year.
Labor percentages in Atlanta adjusted by similar means last year, rising long-term while falling marginally over the past few months.
Unemployment rates increased slightly in the city over a 12-month time span, rising from 2.7% in November 2022 to 3.1% last November. Local unemployment reached its 2023 peak in August, reaching 3.7% before dropping to 3.4% in September.
Contrarily, national unemployment rates increased by just a tenth of a percentage point over the course of the same 12 months, from 3.4% to 3.5%. Unemployment for the civilian population aged 16 and older reached 3.7% nationwide in December, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.