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Updated Federal Data Show South Carolina Labor Market Full of Holiday Cheer

Wed, 12/21/2022

South Carolina businesses reported 168,000 job openings in October 2022

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Columbia, S.C. – On Thursday, December 15, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released new state-level Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data for October 2022. While the number of hires and quits declined modestly from September, the number of job openings ticked up slightly. Despite the news of waves of layoffs, particularly in the technology sector, these figures remain low in South Carolina and in line with long-run trends.


“It appears that employees are carefully watching the news. As layoffs increase and hiring decreases, employees are quitting their jobs less frequently,” stated S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce Executive Director Dan Ellzey.


“Even though there are concerns about a future economic slowdown, there’s still strong demand for workers statewide,” said Dr. Bryan Grady, Labor Market Information (LMI) Director at the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW). “We have a historically low unemployment rate in South Carolina and businesses are eager to hire. One of DEW’s priorities in 2023 will be making sure that our residents know about the good, high-paying jobs out there, particularly those that do not require a college degree.”


“Like Dr. Grady said, job demand is high and there are more than enough opportunities to meet the diverse needs of South Carolinians. As of October of this year, there were 168,000 job openings based upon the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic Report. At the same time, there were 107,000 job openings in our SC Works Online Services website. Whether you are a young person entering the workforce for the first time looking for part-time work or are an experienced worker looking for a career change, your next job is out there. As we await next month’s JOLTS data, I would like to remind everyone that we might see spikes in hire rates, which are absolutely normal around the holidays due to the influx of temporary, seasonal jobs; just as spikes in quit rates are normal in January due to these positions no longer being available,” continued Ellzey.

For more information, please email communications@dew.sc.gov with any press inquiries or interview requests for the LMI Division. DEW has a new agency dashboard that provides easily accessible economic and workforce data, and the LMI website at scworkforceinfo.com has been updated to improve the user experience. Also, DEW offers a monthly publication, Trends, which provides additional LMI information.