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More Good News for SC

Rock Hill, SC , July 18, 2020

More good news... About two weeks ago, I shared the national jobs report for June. It was OUTSTANDING, with 4.8 million jobs being restored in June, according to the Labor Department.

That was nationally, which of course begs the question: How are we doing here in South Carolina? Well, we now have that data, and it too is very encouraging.

According to a report released yesterday from the SC Dept. of Employment and Workforce, our state’s “seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased considerably to 8.7% in June from May’s revised estimate of 12.4.” Looking at unemployment rates in counties within the 5th Congressional District from May to June:

✅ Cherokee: 15.2% down to 11%
✅ Chester: 16.0% down to 13.1%
✅ Fairfield: 13.2% down to 10.7%
✅ Kershaw: 9.6% down to 7.5%
✅ Lancaster: 13.3% down to 10.6%
✅ Lee: 12.4% down to 10.2%
✅ Newberry: 8.5% down to 6.7%
✅ Spartanburg: 14.4% down to 9.9%
✅ Sumter: 11.0% down to 8.5%
✅ Union: 16.4% down to 13.1%
✅ York: 12.5% down to 9.6%

This means nine of our district’s eleven counties are currently under the U.S. national average of 11.1% unemployment, which is good.

Obviously, there’s still a long way to go to offset pandemic-related job losses from March and April. This data, however, is a clear indication we’re on the right path economically here in the Palmetto State, even as COVID remains a significant concern.

*** It also illustrates just how MONUMENTALLY WRONG those individuals were who were calling for our non-essential businesses to remain closed until this pandemic was under control. While we need to continue working to drive down infection rates and keep hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, allowing businesses to safely re-open was absolutely the right call.

I cannot imagine the utter devastation that a continued economic shutdown would have had on top of our existing COVID problems. Fortunately we have only one of those two nightmares to deal with, and I’m thrilled to see our jobs numbers trending in the right direction in spite of it.