South Carolina Jobs Report: Labor Participation Ticks Up

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Labor participation in South Carolina ticked up during the month of July, reaching its highest level since last September. The problem? This key indicator of the employment economy has been plumbing historic depths of late – and continues to languish among the lowest readings of any state in the nation.

According to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), labor participation in the Palmetto State stood at 57.5 percent last month – up 0.2 percent from June’s reading. Nationally, labor participation ticked up 0.1 percent to 62.7 percent – its best reading since last November.

For those of you uninitiated, labor participation refers to the size of a state’s workforce. It is the percentage of its population that is either employed or actively in search of work. Unlike the widely watched unemployment rate –  which tracks a segment of workers within the labor force – labor participation tracks the size of the workforce itself.

Which means it is a more accurate gauge of how well a state is faring on the jobs front.

How is South Carolina faring on this metric historically?

Take a look…

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As shown by the above chart – prepared by our inimitably incomparable research director, Jenn Wood – South Carolina’s workforce has steadily eroded in the years since “Republican” (a.k.a. uniparty) rule began. Indeed, this metric began dipping from its peak of 68.5 percent right around the time the GOP takeover of state government began. Labor participation has not eclipsed the key 60 percent demarcation line since May 2012, former governor Nikki Haley’s second full year in office. When Haley left office in January 2017, labor participation in the South Carolina had plunged all the way down to 58.2 percent.

Last month, South Carolina was tied with Alabama for the fourth-worst labor participation rate in the nation. Only New Mexico (57.4 percent), West Virginia (55.1 percent) and Mississippi (54.2 percent) fared worse.

Politicians love to blame South Carolina’s anemic workforce on its large senior population, but with the lone exception of West Virginia – every single state with an older population than South Carolina has a higher labor participation rate (and several of these states boosted their rates during the same period our rate was falling off the map).

For those of you keeping score at home, an estimated 2,512,921 (+13,044) South Carolinians were part of the workforce during July – including 2,415,142 (+4,983) who were gainfully employed and 97,779 (+8,061) who were unemployed but actively looking for work. Once again, an uptick in that latter number caused the state’s unemployment rate to climb 0.3 percent to 3.9 percent.

Unemployment in South Carolina has now climbed a full percentage point over the past year – while labor participation is essentially unchanged over that time frame.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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