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As South Carolina politicians approve additional unsustainable government spending increases – and continue refusing to send money back to taxpayers – the consequences of these bad decisions keep turning up in the Palmetto State’s lackluster employment data.
According to the latest revised numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), South Carolina’s labor participation rate for the month of January was 57.2 percent. That’s the fourth-worst number in the nation – and puts the Palmetto State more than five percentage points behind the national average of 62.5 percent.
Take a look (courtesy of our amazing director of research Jenn Wood) …
South Carolina is ahead of only Kentucky (56.9 percent), West Virginia (55.3 percent) and Mississippi (53.8 percent) on this critical economic indicator – which measures a state’s labor force as a percentage of its working age population. Meanwhile, neighboring Georgia (61.4 percent) and North Carolina (60.7 percent) are both above the critical sixty percent demarcation line.
BLS bean counters recently revised three years of previously released data (going back to 2020) – and will release updated numbers for February 2024 later this month. The seasonal revisions smoothed out peaks and valleys in the previously released numbers – although these changes did nothing to arrest South Carolina’s sustained downward trajectory on this most important of all employment metrics.
Unlike the unemployment rate – which tracks a segment of workers within the labor force – labor participation tracks the size of the workforce itself. That makes it a far better indicator of the extent to which people are gainfully employed … or, as is too often the case in South Carolina, not.
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“Republican” leaders in South Carolina – including former 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley – have presided over the Palmetto State’s steady employment collapse over the past thirty-plus years. To wit: Labor participation was humming along as high as 68.5 percent when the GOP began its takeover of state government in the early 1990s.
Now? It is continuing to plumb historic depths …
For those of you keeping score at home, in January 2024 there were 4,324,699 working age South Carolinians – of whom 2,471,792 were part of the workforce. A total of 75,335 Palmetto State citizens – or 3.04 percent of the workforce – was classified as “unemployed.”
Count on this media outlet to continue bringing our audience the full employment situation report for South Carolina – not just the political numbers cherry-picked by uni-party politicians and their mainstream media mouthpieces. More importantly, count on us to continue advocating on behalf of reforms that would fundamentally reorient this trajectory – and position the Palmetto State back on a path toward expanded employment, elevated incomes, greater prosperity and reduced dependency.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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4 comments
To improve the percentage of employed in SC, maybe we need to change the education system that prepares them. Maybe we should stop telling students that they can “make a good living” with only a high school diploma? I can’t even count the number of guys I know who have decided their true calling is cutting someone else’s grass. This leaves them ample time to do important things, like hunting and fishing. Most are really living off their wife’s job instead and have chosen to be minimally employed. True, not everyone needs a college degree, but they do need something of some kind that will earn a living wage. We lose too many kids in the school>work pipeline who decide they can eff off and do what they want. Not to mention those that end up dropping out and get involved in crime. And no, “vouchers” and paying for some rich kid’s private education is not improving the education system in SC, which is the GOP answer to everything.
Man, you really hate other people having freedom to decide what’s good for them and living with the consequences.
Cutting grass is more honest work than what most corporate executives engage in, probably why it pays less.
FITS: How is illegal immigration treated by these studies? Are they counted as part of the workforce for the purpose of the labor participation rate? There could easily be 250k-500k of them in our state.
Mr. Folks,
I’m sure you will call me “Karen the Fact Checker” but I have several observations and questions “in regards” to your news article. First, is there the ability to differentiate between those who are unable to find a job to those who are unwilling to work?
Courtesy of the Biden Administration during the pandemic, citizens were compensated for doing nothing. The checks continued month after month which led to years and the work ethic further diminished. The money was good even better than ‘getting in a wreck, and getting a check.’ Now, you don’t have to be injured to get a free check. Your article makes no reference to that. I was curious why? Also, your article does not recognize that last year the state put millions towards training and retraining South Carolina workers. Do you think that is relevant?
Also, you start your article off by saying sic ‘that politicians continue refusing to send money back to taxpayers.’ Karen, would disagree! The fact is the House has proposed lowering the income tax rate yet again allowing taxpayers to keep more of their money. In fact, the House has proposed a half a billion dollars in property tax relief on owner occupied homes.
In fairness, I got my information from the newspaper which also needs a fact checker.
Your former humble public servant!