South Carolina’s Employment Situation    

August 2018

Employment levels continue record climb, unemployment rate declines to 3.4 percent

The number of individuals working across the state edged upward to a new record in August, increasing by 317 to a level of 2,227,867,

Unemployment decreased significantly, by 3,923 people, to 78,416. The state’s labor force fell by 3,606, to a level of 2,306,283, pushing the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate to 3.4 percent from July’s estimate of 3.6 percent.

Since August of 2017, employment gains totaled 9,328, and the labor force declined by 9,633 people. The level of unemployed people fell by 18,961.

Nationally, the unemployment rate remained at 3.9 percent, unchanged from July.

Nonfarm Employment by Industry (Seasonally Adjusted1)

In August 2018 seasonally adjusted, nonfarm payrolls increased by 4,200 over the month to a record high level of 2,130,400.

The increase in employment was primarily due to growth in Professional and Business Services (+4,000); Other Services (+1,100); Education and Health Services (+700); Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+600); Government (+500); and Financial Activities (+100).

The industries reporting declines during the period were Manufacturing (-1,500); Leisure and Hospitality (-1,000); Construction (-300); and Information (-100).

From August 2017 to August 2018, South Carolina’s economy has added 40,600 seasonally adjusted, nonfarm jobs.

Industries with noticeable gains were Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+11,600); Education and Health Services (+9,800); Leisure and Hospitality (+7,300); Other Services (+4,300); Manufacturing (+3,200); Government (+2,500); Professional and Business Services (+1,800); Construction (+200); and Information (+200).

Declines were reported in Financial Activities (-600).

 

Nonfarm Employment by Industry (Not Seasonally Adjusted2)

Not seasonally adjusted, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 1,300 from July 2018 to August 2018 for a total of 2,131,800.

Professional and Business Services (+5,200); Government (+2,800); Education and Health Services (+2,800); Other Services (+1,000); Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+500); Mining and Logging (+100) added the most jobs growth during the month of any other major industry.

Industries declining during the month were Leisure and Hospitality (-7,100); Construction (-2,000); Manufacturing (-1,400); Financial Activities (-500); and Information (-100).

Since August 2017, not seasonally adjusted, nonfarm jobs were up 38,500 overall in South Carolina.

Industries marking strong annual gains were Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+10,800); Education and Health Services (+8,800); Leisure and Hospitality (+6,400); Other Services (+4,300); Manufacturing (+3,300); Government (+2,800); Professional and Business Services (+2,200); Information (+500); and Mining and Logging (+300).

The industries reporting declines were Financial Activities (-500) and Construction (-400).

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.