South Carolina’s Employment Situation

September 2018

Unemployment rate declines to 3.3 percent, number of employed dips

The number of individuals working across the state declined slightly in September by 339 to a level of 2,227,423.

The level of unemployment decreased by 1,986 people to 76,772. The state’s labor force fell by 2,325 in September to a level of 2,304,195, pushing the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate to 3.3 percent from August’s estimate of 3.4 percent.

Since September of 2017, employment gains totaled 6,957, and the labor force declined by 14,040. The level of unemployed people fell by 20,997.

Nationally, the unemployment rate fell to 3.7 percent in September, down from August’s rate of 3.9 percent.

Nonfarm Employment by Industry (Seasonally Adjusted1)

In September 2018 seasonally adjusted, nonfarm payrolls decreased by 14,500 over the month to a level of 2,113,000.

The industries reporting increases during the month were Construction (+300); Education and Health Services (+200); and Manufacturing (+200).

The drop in employment was primarily due to a decline in Leisure and Hospitality (-9,300); Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (-2,600); Professional and Business Services (-1,400); Government (-600); Other Services (-500); Information (-400); and Financial Activities (-200).

From September 2017 to September 2018, South Carolina’s economy has added 27,600 seasonally adjusted, nonfarm jobs.

Industries with noticeable gains were Education and Health Services (+9,900); Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+8,300); Other Services (+3,500); Manufacturing (+2,700); Government (+2,200); Professional and Business Services (+1,000); Construction (+700); and Leisure and Hospitality (+100).

Declines were reported in Financial Activities (-800) and Information (-200).

Nonfarm Employment by Industry (Not Seasonally Adjusted2)

Not seasonally adjusted, nonfarm payroll employment decreased by 18,100 from August 2018 to September 2018 to a total of 2,113,100.

Government (+10,100); Education and Health Services (+2,400); and Manufacturing (+300) added the most jobs during the month of all major industries.

Industries declining during the month were Leisure and Hospitality (-18,500); Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (-4,700); Professional and Business Services (-3,100); Financial Activities (-1,400); Other Services (-1,100); Construction (-1,000); Information (-900); and Mining and Logging (-200).

Since September 2017, not seasonally adjusted, nonfarm jobs were up 28,000 overall in South Carolina.

Industries marking strong annual gains were Education and Health Services (+10,500); Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+9,800); Other Services (+3,200); Manufacturing (+2,600); Government (+1,200); Professional and Business Services (+1,200); Mining and Logging (+200); and Leisure and Hospitality (+100).

The industries reporting declines were Financial Activities (-500); Information (-200); and Construction (-100).

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.