SCDEW announces Sept. jobs growth despite rise in unemployment rate

SOUTH CAROLINA (WCIV) — The South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce published their September 2024 Employment Situation report Oct. 22, showcasing a marked increase in employment from Sept. 2023.

Key sectors showing healthy signs of growth include construction, leisure & hospitality, education & health services, and government, all gaining at least 9,000 workers from Sept. 2023 to Sept. 2024.

Bryan Grady, Assistant Executive Director for Labor Market Information for the SCDEW, said South Carolina’s data was “in pretty good shape” and that the Palmetto State has the third-fastest growth rate in the number of jobs in the U.S.

“We have businesses that are eager to hire and looking to bring additional people on board,” Grady said.

Since 2019 and the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic, South Carolina has several key sectors showing signs of growth above others.

Grady said professional scientific and technical services, which includes law firms, architecture firms, PR consultants, and more, have grown 37% since the end of 2019. The sports and entertainment sector has grown 24% in that time, and private education has grown 23%. Most importantly, per Grady, these sectors have grown in tandem with the overall population leading to greater economic growth long-term.

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Statewide, 60,098 individuals joined the workforce over the Sept. 2023 estimate, however, unemployment increased to 113,982.

The total estimate of unemployed people in the Palmetto State in Sept. 2023 was around 72,000. The state’s unemployment rate increased to 4.5% while the nationwide average dipped to 4.1%. Counties with the highest unemployment rate in South Carolina include Marlboro (8.3%), Bamberg (7.7%), and Allendale (7.3%), while the lowest include Charleston (3.7%), Hampton (3.7%), and Dorchester (4.0%). Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties had a combined unemployment rate of 3.9%, a 1.6 point increase from a year ago.

Grady says the increased unemployment rate is not due to layoffs or company closures, but a function of the way the unemployment rate is calculated. He said the rate is calculated by the percentage of the labor force that is not in place, and individuals must be actively looking for a job to be considered part of the labor force.

“We’ve seen a lot of people who have actually decided that they want to find a job, and they’ve all kind of come in in the last few months, and it’s just taken a little long for those people to find the right job,” said Grady. “We see an increase in the number of people who are looking for a job and that’s what’s pushing unemployment.”

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Large contributing factors to Charleston’s low unemployment rate are the tourism industry, the growing manufacturing center, and workers moving to the city from elsewhere resulting in more job creation, according to Grady. “Charleston had the highest job growth of any metropolitan area in the country,” he added.

Grady attributed Marlboro County’s high unemployment rate to a major plant closure in 2022. Mowhawk Flooring’s Oak River Mills plant closed in October 2022 after over 60 years in Marlboro, resulting in a loss of 25% of all manufacturing jobs in the county at the time. Up to 600 people were put out of work due to that closure alone.

“Rural South Carolina has a lot of challenges in a lot of ways,” said Grady. “You see the population in many places declining and a lot of employers want to be near customers. They want to be near infrastructure and that sort of steers things toward the major metropolitan areas. So it’s not surprising that the metros generally have lower unemployment rates than a lot of more rural counties.”

Grady says the SCDEW has work centers across the state dedicated to assisting South Carolinians find jobs and to help companies find workers.

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South Carolina’s economic base is ultimately growing and diversifying, Grady said, and executives, financial professionals, and the healthcare sector are all looking to expand their economic impact in the state as management of companies enterprise move in and healthcare facilities continue to grow.

“Executives and financial professionals, again, very, very high wage generally for most of those jobs,” Grady said of the growing management of companies enterprise sector. ” That’s expected to grow quite substantially, and that’s a space where the Department of Commerce has been really trying to attract additional companies to the state.”

In regards to economic growth in healthcare, Grady highlighted the need for registered nurses in the state, as well as the increasing retiree demographic in South Carolina requiring additional care.

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“Certainly overall the projections look positive,” said Grady. “They are sort of a best guess essentially because we don’t know when there’s going to be a recession or things like that. But, you know, certainly continued growth and continued jobs available for, for South Carolinians.”

For more information on the September jobs report or for help finding a job in South Carolina, visit the SCDEW’s website.