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Tue, 11/22/2022
Updated Federal Data Show South Carolina Labor Market Remains Robust
South Carolina businesses hired 110,000 workers in September 2022
Columbia, S.C. – The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released new state-level Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data for September 2022 on Thursday, November 17. While the number of job openings ticked down slightly from August, both hires and quits increased marginally, though none of these changes were statistically significant. Seasonally adjusted data are shown in the table below with month-over-month and year-over-year comparisons included for reference.
| Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) - Seasonally adjusted | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Month |
Job Openings |
Hires |
Quits |
|||
|
Count |
Rate |
Count |
Rate |
Count |
Rate |
|
|
September 2021 |
177,000 |
7.6% |
108,000 |
5.0% |
67,000 |
3.1% |
|
August 2022 (revised) |
172,000 |
7.1% |
107,000 |
4.8% |
77,000 |
3.4% |
|
September 2022 (preliminary) |
166,000 |
6.9% |
110,000 |
4.9% |
78,000 |
3.5% |
“These data show that our state’s labor market is continuing to excel, even as economic headwinds are increasing nationally and globally,” said Dr. Bryan Grady, Labor Market Information (LMI) Director at the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce. “Our hiring rate is well above the national average and there continues to be more than two job openings for every unemployed South Carolinian.”
“The JOLTS statistics prove that we are in a competitive job market in which businesses are offering multiple incentives to jobseekers,” stated S.C. Department an Employment and Workforce Executive Director Dan Ellzey. “Employers are creating new jobs and adapting old ones to meet the evolving demands of the labor force. From better pay to remote work opportunities, you can find the right job for you by visiting SC Works Online Services, which currently lists over 103,000 job openings across the state. As we enter the holiday season, this is also the perfect time to find seasonal, part-time work that some jobseekers can take advantage of, including young people entering the workforce for the first time.”
For more information, review the included table or contact 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 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 data.