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Due to severe winter weather, many government offices will be closed Monday, February 2. DEW's Appeals, Collections, and Unemployment Insurance (UI) Tax departments will not be available to take calls. Please know that we have limited staff taking UI calls starting at 10 AM and wait times may be long. We strongly encourage you to call back tomorrow if your call is not urgent. As a reminder, you can always get up-to-date information about your claim or account by visiting the MyBenefits claimant portal. 

For the latest updates of SC Works closures, please visit scworks.org/sc-works-closings to find out if your local center is affected.

Executive Director William Floyd's December 2023 Employment Statement

Tue, 01/23/2024

Executive Director William Floyd's December 2023 Employment Statement

Columbia, S.C. – “South Carolina ended 2023 with more good news. The number of people employed increased every month of 2023, hitting another record level in December with 2,401,953 working in the state. That is approximately 108,000 people added to the workforce year over year, December 2022 to December 2023,” said S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) Executive Director William Floyd.

“South Carolina is also holding steady with a labor force participation rate of 57.0%, while adding more than 5,000 people to the labor force since November, and an unemployment rate of 3.0%. In comparison, the national unemployment rate for December was 3.7%,” said Floyd.

“For DEW, highlights in 2023 included a record-setting increase of South Carolina’s workforce, the successful launch of phase one of our agency’s rural initiative, the passage of Act 67 enhancing the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development (CCWD), the connection of jobseekers and employers through countless job fairs and hiring events, and the publication of relevant workforce data studies such as the EV supply gap analysis,” continued Floyd.

“Progress will continue in 2024 during which DEW will be implementing phase two of our rural initiative connecting rural jobseekers with employment, developing new workforce resources in collaboration with the CCWD, transitioning more veterans into our workforce, and celebrating September as Workforce Development Month for the third consecutive year,” said Floyd.

“South Carolina’s thriving economy makes 2024 a great time to connect jobseekers with a wide variety of job openings throughout the state and to introduce students to excellent options for lifelong careers,” concluded Floyd.

As a reminder, in February of each year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) conducts its annual revision of national estimates from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) and the Current Employment Statistics (CES) monthly survey. For that reason, numbers for January 2024 will be released on March 11 and numbers for February 2024 will be released on March 22.