ISSUE: Economic recovery

OUR VIEW: No secret that rural areas will suffer longer

With Orangeburg County’s unemployment at a record high over 17 percent, and other rural counties also fairing poorly, the news is a mixed bag.

T&D headlines of July 31 are reason for optimism: “10 million investment will save jobs, Koyo says.” The Orangeburg automotive parts manufacturer will invest in new equipment designed to maintain the company’s competitiveness.

Sustaining the Koyo jobs is good news in a county in which a third of the work force is involved in manufacturing, which has been hit particularly hard during the recession.

While the Koyo news was being digested by readers of The T&D and those at TheTandD.com, the Charleston Regional Business Journal was reporting that two economists and the state’s treasurer are pointing to a state pushing slowly toward recovery.

Speaking at the “Midyear Forecast” installment of the Power Breakfast Series, hosted by the Charleston Regional Business Journal and Atlantic Bank & Trust, Don Schunk, a research economist at Coastal Carolina University, said recovery will unfortunately be a “slow crawl.”

He cited job additions but noted the very problem that is plaguing Orangeburg County: the loss of manufacturing jobs.

The state has shed about 93,000 jobs in 12 months, Schunk said, with 30,000 of those evaporating from manufacturing. Historically, manufacturing jobs that are knocked from the rolls don’t return, he said, meaning the unemployment problem in South Carolina has roots deeper than the current recession.

“This is not something that will go away magically when the recession ends,” Schunk said.

As reported by the Business Journal, Doug Woodward, director of research and an economist at the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, expanded on Schunk’s asssessment, predicting urban areas of the state would see recovery at a more rapid pace.

Woodward said a focus on entrepreneurship and quality of life could help South Carolina’s urban areas emerge from the recession sooner than rural counties.

Interestingly, Treasurer Converse Chellis downplayed Gov. Mark Sanford’s focus on paying down debt. Most of the debt to which Sanford refers is related to the estimated amount the state will need to pay future pension and health care benefits for government retirees. There is a sound plan in place in order to meet those obligations.

“Unemployment is our problem,” Chellis said.

Indeed it is, and Chellis is on target in saying the state must push and push hard to sell its assets to recruit more industry.

The recession will change the state’s economy, and the nature even of industrial jobs is changing with new demands for skills needed to hold jobs, but South Carolina remains attractive as a site for new or expanding industry. We must capitalize on our assets.

In the meantime, the state, and particularly its rural areas, have Woodward’s words: “There will be a recovery. The question is how strong that recovery will be.”

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