As potential jobs data downgrades loom, South Carolina’s official employment report showed little change during the month of November 2024. Were the Palmetto State riding high economically that would obviously not be a problem. As it stands, though, the lack of motion is preserving one of the nation’s weakest employment economies.

According to data released this month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Palmetto State’s historically anemic labor participation rate held at 57.6% in November – unchanged for the fourth consecutive month. Meanwhile, for the second month in a row, South Carolina was tied with Alabama and New Mexico for the third-lowest labor participation rate in America – ahead of only Mississippi (55%) and West Virginia (54.9%).

By contrast, neighboring North Carolina (60%) and Georgia (61.6%) both clocked in above the key sixty percent demarcation line. Nationally, labor participation dipped modestly to 62.5%.

For those of you visual learners, here’s a look at the data courtesy of FITSNews intrepidly amazing research director Jenn Wood…

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Labor participation tracks the percentage of a state’s population that’s either gainfully employed or actively searching for work. Unlike the widely watched unemployment rate –  which tracks a segment of workers within the labor force – labor participation tracks the size of the workforce itself. That makes it a much better indicator of sustained job creation – or in South Carolina’s case, the lack thereof.

For those of you following the unemployment rate – a shorter-term indicator – it climbed to 4.8 percent last month, its highest level since November 2020. That’s above the national unemployment rate of 4.2 percent – and two full percentage points higher than state-level record lows achieved in June and July of 2023.

Making these disappointing numbers even more concerning? Downward revisions are on the horizon…

Under the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the release of jobs data has become an exercise in goal-seeking rather than the supplying of accurate information. Earlier this year, an estimated 818,000 jobs ostensibly created between April 2023 and March of 2024 disappeared – while earlier this month, “early benchmark revisions” to state payroll data revealed more phantom jobs.

According to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, payrolls declined from March through June of 2024 by 0.1% as opposed to rising by 1.1%, as was previously reported by the BLS. In other words, as opposed to the embarrassingly anemic job gains the Biden administration touted earlier this year, the nation’s economy actually lost jobs this spring.

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South Carolina is one of the states in line for a downward revision, according to the data – making an already difficult employment situation even worse.

What will the Palmetto State’s governing uni-party do about the problem? Despite purportedly pro-business “Republican” lawmakers enjoying supermajorities in both chambers of the S.C. General Assembly, Palmetto State job levels – and income levels – have lagged behind the rest of the nation (and behind the state’s regional peers) for decades.

Labor participation in South Carolina began dipping from its peak of 68.5% right around the time the GOP takeover of state government began in the mid-1990s. Labor participation has not eclipsed 60% since May 2012, former governor Nikki Haley’s second full year in office. When Haley left office in January 2017, labor participation in the South Carolina had plunged all the way down to 58.2%.

So much for Haley being a “jobs governor.”

For those of you keeping score at home, an estimated 2,533,987 (+2,725) South Carolinians were part of the workforce during November – including 2,413,189 (-679) who were gainfully employed and 118,125 (+3,404) who were unemployed but actively looking for work. As I noted last month, short-term unemployment in the state is expected to spike even higher in the coming weeks as the impact of several high-profile large-scale layoffs begins to be felt.

And again, all of this is before we address significant macroeconomic pressures awaiting the incoming administration of Donald Trump… which is off to an uneven start in its relations with congressional “Republicans.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.

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