South Carolina labor force hits record in November

Last year’s federal government shutdown delayed monthly employment reporting for the last four months of 2025, including this month’s release of the November data. As the Bureau of Labor Statistics was closed during the month of October, the information necessary to produce an unemployment rate for that month was not collected and could not be published, according to the state Department of Employment and Workforce.

However, the payroll information from the state’s businesses for the month of October, which is an automated process, is included along with the full employment details for November in the Employment Situation report provided by DEW.

“South Carolina’s labor force reached a record high in November at 2,601,819, an increase of more than 51,000 individuals over the past 12 months,” DEW Executive Director William Floyd said in the release. “This increase in the number of people working or actively looking for work resulted in an uptick in the labor force participation rate to 58% and the unemployment rate to 4.6%, the latter which is in line with the national unemployment rate.”

The hospitality industry is key to that growth, according to DEW.

“Payroll growth continues to be consistent across most industrial sectors in the state for the month, with the largest year-over-year gains concentrated in leisure and hospitality and professional and business services,” Floyd said. “Over the past year, payroll growth also occurred in every metropolitan region in the state, with particularly high growth in the Myrtle Beach region.”

November was also a time in which DEW highlighted its veteran services offered through SC Works, and how the agency encourages veterans and their spouses to Stay to Apply Your Skills in South Carolina through the STAYS program, which celebrated its one-year anniversary that month. In one year, the program served 672 participants, partnered with 320 employers, and helped at least 260 veterans and military spouses find employment, according to the release.

“Our agency celebrated its Veterans in the Workforce initiative throughout November by sponsoring veteran-themed recruitment events and spotlighting success stories on social media, but we connect veteran jobseekers with employers all year round,” Floyd said in the release.

Veterans and military spouses can visit dew.sc.gov/stays and veterans.scworks.org to learn how they can take advantage of personalized jobseeker programs and find job fairs and training opportunities tailored for them.