Columbia metro's job growth is worst in state for 2010 - why? (Charleston: real estate, insurance)
Columbia areaColumbia - Lexington - Irmo
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So what's going on here? Why is Columbia at the very bottom despite seeming to have a reasonably stable economy?
The coast seems to be recovering pretty fast - In Charleston the story is well-known. In the Grand Strand I'm not really sure what's going on since it was devastated by the collapse of the beach-related real estate and construction industries (a mini-Florida, such as it is), but perhaps there are other sectors that are recovering quickly (perhaps something else like professional services? tourism?).
The Upstate seems to be recovering pretty well, too, which I'm guessing is being driven by manufacturing job growth.
Florence is basically treading water, and is perhaps held afloat by the large McLeod hospital complex, very good interstate location, and a handful of logistics, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing facilities.
Sumter is, unfortunately, not a surprise considering there is not much outside of Shaw AFB that drives the economy there. It is in many ways a big-town version of South Carolina's rural problems.
My guess is that Columbia is on the trailing edge of job growth because we are suffering large job cuts in state government and the university, and tax revenue hasn't started coming back yet. We do not have enough manufacturing or other high-value private sector employers to drive better job growth. This is perhaps the Achilles' heel in our "stable" economy in that we lack a robust business/private industry sector to quickly re-grow jobs.
JOBS: Over the past 40 years, January has seen decreases in non-farm job counts when compared to December’s estimates. January of 2011, continued to follow this pattern. The establishment payroll survey showed a drop of 42,700 nonagricultural jobs in January (not seasonally adjusted). Most affected industries included Retail Trade with a decline of 10,700, as temporary help was released after the holiday season. As the winter season continued, Leisure and Hospitality were also affected with a reduction of 7,300 jobs. Professional and Business Services reduced their payrolls by 5,900, mostly in temporary help agencies, Construction continued to drop by 5,200 and Manufacturing showed little change for the month. Government jobs were also down 5,400 as most support staff in state and local schools had not yet returned from the holiday break.
If you have one user of your whatever and you went to two users of your whatever, you can build/make some fantastic claims like fastest growing whatever, whatever doubling in sales, etc.
If you have 100 users of your whatever and went to 150 users of your whatever, your claims are less.
Is the glass half full or half empty?
Well the answer depends on my job. Is my job to fill or empty the glass.......LOL
So what's going on here? Why is Columbia at the very bottom despite seeming to have a reasonably stable economy?
The coast seems to be recovering pretty fast - In Charleston the story is well-known. In the Grand Strand I'm not really sure what's going on since it was devastated by the collapse of the beach-related real estate and construction industries (a mini-Florida, such as it is), but perhaps there are other sectors that are recovering quickly (perhaps something else like professional services? tourism?).
The Upstate seems to be recovering pretty well, too, which I'm guessing is being driven by manufacturing job growth.
Florence is basically treading water, and is perhaps held afloat by the large McLeod hospital complex, very good interstate location, and a handful of logistics, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing facilities.
Sumter is, unfortunately, not a surprise considering there is not much outside of Shaw AFB that drives the economy there. It is in many ways a big-town version of South Carolina's rural problems.
My guess is that Columbia is on the trailing edge of job growth because we are suffering large job cuts in state government and the university, and tax revenue hasn't started coming back yet. We do not have enough manufacturing or other high-value private sector employers to drive better job growth. This is perhaps the Achilles' heel in our "stable" economy in that we lack a robust business/private industry sector to quickly re-grow jobs.
Any other comments out there?
Sounds reasonable....the City does have alot of State jobs that may have been lost.. not to mention the banking mergers/consolidations. I do feel optimistic with developments like.. Innovista will spur a new economy for the City.. though it may be awhile.
I dont know what to say about Sumter.. It appears Anderson has now overtaken it and eventually it may fall off the list all together. I pray Shaw does not close for their sake..... They need to make 378 a limited access freeway from the Sumter Bypass all the way up to SE Columbia.. then have it branch off and hit I-77 somewhere down at Bluff Road. The more Sumter can identify with the Columbia Metro the better off both cities should be....I mean Sumter cant even get its own forum on City Data. Maybe the moderator could atl east add sumter's name under the Columbia subforum...instead of leaving it off the grid...lol
The economy just isn't diverse enough, there. Blue Cross employs like 35,000 people, plus their thousands of contractors (we know a few of them). Columbia appears to be more of a government (federal and, obviously, state), insurance, regional banking HQ, and university town.
The leaders around there need to get together and create a plan for economic growth, as there's a lot of talent in the area and the potential to attract top-line businesses. One thing that sticks out like a sore thumb in Columbia is the lack of home-grown businesses. Create an environment where entrepreneurs and folks willing to locate their businesses in that area could be successful, even compliment each other, and Columbia would flourish. After all, there's so much happening across the state as it is, and with the area's proximity to both the coast and the Upstate one would think the metro leaders could come up with a plan.
Perhaps we are slow on job growth because we weren't hit as hard by job loss as the rural areas of the state. If so, it stands to reason we have limited room for job growth by comparison. I don't really know, just musing about it out loud.
Quote:
JOBS: Over the past 40 years, January has seen decreases in non-farm job counts when compared to December’s estimates. January of 2011, continued to follow this pattern. The establishment payroll survey showed a drop of 42,700 nonagricultural jobs in January (not seasonally adjusted). Most affected industries included Retail Trade with a decline of 10,700, as temporary help was released after the holiday season. As the winter season continued, Leisure and Hospitality were also affected with a reduction of 7,300 jobs. Professional and Business Services reduced their payrolls by 5,900, mostly in temporary help agencies, Construction continued to drop by 5,200 and Manufacturing showed little change for the month. Government jobs were also down 5,400 as most support staff in state and local schools had not yet returned from the holiday break.
http://dew.sc.gov/documents/lmi-monthly-trends/January_2011.pdf (broken link)
The data and table I posted was from January 2010 to January 2011, not month-to-month data (e.g., December 2010 to January 2011), so I was posting and looking at year-over-year data. I made sure it was year-to-year to eliminate any seasonal effects. I'm also looking at metro-to-metro comparisons in the state, not statewide stats.
Columbia lags in every recession, going in and coming out.
This is consistent with the "tripod of stability" we have - we have a relatively high "floor" in terms of economic activity (provided by a relatively well-educated population), but not a particularly high "ceiling" (since we don't seem to be significantly adding more ambitious economic endeavors to the extent the Upstate & coast have). We sort of coast in a comfort zone but don't seem to be involved in higher-risk/higher-reward possibilities.
Perhaps we are slow on job growth because we weren't hit as hard by job loss as the rural areas of the state. If so, it stands to reason we have limited room for job growth by comparison. I don't really know, just musing about it out loud.
I'll say it again:
This is consistent with the "tripod of stability" we have - we have a relatively high "floor" in terms of economic activity (provided by a relatively well-educated population), but not a particularly high "ceiling" (since we don't seem to be significantly adding more ambitious economic endeavors to the extent the Upstate & coast have). We sort of coast in a comfort zone but don't seem to be involved in higher-risk/higher-reward possibilities.
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They need to make 378 a limited access freeway from the Sumter Bypass all the way up to SE Columbia.. then have it branch off and hit I-77 somewhere down at Bluff Road. The more Sumter can identify with the Columbia Metro the better off both cities should be....I mean Sumter cant even get its own forum on City Data. Maybe the moderator could atl east add sumter's name under the Columbia subforum...instead of leaving it off the grid...lol
