South Carolina’s Employment Situation    

August 2017

 Unemployment rate inches up in August,
employer payrolls hit record level

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased slightly in August to 4 percent from 3.9 percent in July.

The over-the-month change in the number of individuals working declined by 2,208 to 2,225,610 people. The count of unemployed people grew by 1,460 to 93,067. The state’s labor force decreased 748 to 2,318,677 people.

Since August 2016, the labor force has grown by 21,448 people, and employment gains totaled 34,940. The level of unemployed decreased 13,492.

Nationally, the unemployment rate increased from 4.3 percent in July to 4.4 percent in August.

Nonfarm Employment by Industry (Seasonally Adjusted1)

The August over July seasonally adjusted, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 6,200 in South Carolina, hitting a record high level of 2,094,900.

Job gains were recorded in Professional and Business Services (+5,500); Government (+1,700); Other Services (+1,100); Education and Health Services (+1,000); Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+700); Manufacturing (+300); and Information (+300).

Industries noting losses were Construction (-2,700); Leisure and Hospitality (-1,400); and Financial Activities (-400).

Compared to August 2016, seasonally adjusted, nonfarm jobs were up 35,600.

Industries with over-the-year gains were Manufacturing (+10,100); Professional and Business Services (+8,800); Education and Health Services (+6,200); Government (+5,600); Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+4,500); Financial Activities (+800); and Leisure and Hospitality (+500).

Decreases were reported in the Construction (-400); Information (-400); and Other Services (-300) sectors.

Nonfarm Employment by Industry (Not Seasonally Adjusted2)

Not seasonally adjusted, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 4,800 from July 2017 to August 2017 for a total of 2,094,300. Historically, employment has experienced growth during the month of August as schools gear up for the semester but growth was concentrated primarily in Professional and Business Services (+4,100).

Over the month, additional upticks in employment came from Education and Health Services (+2,900); Government (+2,700); and Other Services (+1,600). Manufacturing (+700); Information (+200); Financial Activities (+200); and Mining and Logging (+100) also added jobs during the month. Declines were seen in Construction (-4,500) and Leisure and Hospitality (-3,100), while Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (-100) dropped slightly.

Since August 2016, not seasonally adjusted, nonfarm jobs were up 32,900 overall. Annual industrial gains were in Manufacturing (+10,200); Professional and Business Services (+8,300); Education and Health Services (+5,000); Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+4,400); Government (+3,800); Leisure and Hospitality (+1,400); Financial Activities (+1,000); and Mining and Logging (+200). Decreases occurred in Construction (-700); Other Services (-500); and Information (-200).

1Seasonally Adjusted: Seasonal adjustment removes the effects of events that follow a more or less regular pattern each year (i.e. tourist-related hiring and school closings in the summer). These adjustments make it easier to observe the cyclical and other nonseasonal movements in data over time.

2Not Seasonally Adjusted: Effects of regular or seasonal patterns have not been removed from these data.