S.C. continues job climb; state adds 14,600 positions in December

It was a different month but the same story in December in South Carolina as the state's economic recovery from the initial spread of COVID-19 has been significantly better than that of the U.S.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Regional Executive Matt Martin, based in Charlotte, provided analysis of South Carolina's official December employment report from the U.S. Department of Labor on a Tuesday conference call with three state media outlets, including The Sumter Item.

After losing 272,700 jobs in April with the beginning of the pandemic, the Palmetto State continued the long climb back up the hill by adding 14,600 jobs in December.

The monthly tally follows adding 16,300 jobs in November and 11,700 in October, and the state has added back a total of 235,600 jobs in the eight months following the steep fall. That represents about an 86.4% increase in the timeframe, and the overall net loss is down to 37,100 jobs.

The picture is dimmer for the nation overall since April. The U.S. has added back 12.3 million jobs after losing 22.2 million in April, representing a 55.4% increase.

Since December 2019 - or year over year - total jobs in South Carolina are down 2.4%, or 53,200 jobs. In the same timeframe, U.S. jobs have slid 6.2%.

In South Carolina, December job growth was seen in several sectors, including trade, transportation and utilities (6,900 added); professional and business services (5,300 added); leisure and hospitality (2,300 added); construction (900 added); and government (500 added). Private education and private health care services dipped 400 jobs in the month, financial activities fell by 300, and manufacturing slipped by 200 jobs, according to the report.

Five sectors in the state have shown year-over-year job growth since December 2019. They include construction at 5.3%, financial activities at 0.9%, manufacturing at 0.7%, professional and business services at 0.6% and other services at 5.5%.

The leisure and hospitality industry to include restaurants and hotels continues to be the biggest drag on the state and national economies. Those jobs are down 15.6% in the last year in South Carolina and 22.8% nationally.

Martin said he expects the state to continue to outperform the U.S. because of the positive impact of its coastal markets and solid manufacturing structure for both durable and nondurable goods.

In a separate survey report, the state's unemployment rate rose from 4.4% to 4.6% in December.

Locally, Sumter County's unemployment rate was 5.4%. Clarendon County stood at 5.5%, and Lee had the highest area jobless rate at 6%.

The monthly national jobless rate was 6.7%. A broader measure of U.S. unemployment to include discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons was 11.7%.