South Carolina Labor Market Update

Last week, the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) released data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that reveals key facts about South Carolina’s current labor market. This data shows that South Carolina is continuing to experience record levels of employment as the labor force participation rate in April increased to 57.2% which equates to 2,484,243 working or job-searching South Carolinians. In April alone, the number of employed persons increased by 4,810, marking a 32,638-person increase since this time last year.

Conversely, the number of unemployed individuals also increased to 79,793 which includes 1,843 newly unemployed individuals in the month of April. In comparison to this time last year, there are 8,870 more people out of work, bringing the statewide unemployment rate to 3.2 % while the national rate slightly decreased to 3.9%.

More information on the current state of South Carolina’s labor market can be found here.