Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data released

Employment Data Shows Return of Leisure and Hospitality Jobs

Columbia, S.C. – While the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) reports the Employment Situation monthly, DEW’s Labor Market Information (LMI) Division and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produce a great deal of data. This information is collected using various methods and is published on different timelines. Each quarter, DEW and BLS publish the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). This information covers the count of employment and wages as reported by employers in the State Unemployment Insurance Tax System (SUITS).

How is this different from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) jobs that are reported in the Employment Situation? There are a few key differences:

1. CES is a survey of employers to generate an estimate of jobs and wages, while QCEW is a census, or a complete count of jobs in the state.
2. Because the QCEW is an actual count, and therefore more accurate, it takes longer to gather the information and so the lag time in the reporting is larger. The CES data are released monthly. The information in today’s release is for the fourth quarter of 2021.
3. QCEW data are used when geographic or industrial detail is needed, since CES is not available by county or for groups of employers smaller than broad economic sectors.

While neither includes contractors or the self-employed, as they do not pay unemployment insurance taxes, QCEW data are extremely helpful because it is based on hard numbers that are a reliable count of jobs and help explore employment trends throughout the year.

In last Wednesday’s release, there were 2,138,981 jobs statewide in Q4 2021. This is nearly equal to the pre-pandemic figure two years prior of 2,142,551. Perhaps surprisingly, in that time, the number of establishments statewide increased from 141,360 to 155,780, up 10 percent, with gains concentrated in Professional and Technical Services and Health Care and Social Assistance. In addition, average weekly wages grew from $931 to $1,101, an 18 percent increase.

Leisure and hospitality businesses were particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with demand for travel collapsing and many restaurants and bars facing operating challenges. While recovery has been a rough road, and the difficulty finding workers has introduced complications, the degree to which these businesses have bounced back to serve both residents and tourists alike is impressive.

“In April 2020, Leisure and Hospitality—consisting of Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation and Accommodation and Food Services—were only employing about 155,000 people versus roughly 268,000 before the pandemic. Today, nearly all those jobs have returned, and average weekly wages are up more than 20 percent,” said DEW Research and Planning Administrator Brandi Caldwell, who manages the QCEW team.

The county data in this release showed the largest relative job increases over the past two years were seen in Edgefield (+5.0 percent), Newberry (+4.4 percent), and Kershaw (+3.3 percent). In terms of raw numbers, the three counties with the greatest increases in that time were Anderson (+1,162), Spartanburg (+1,038), and Berkeley (+953). Every county saw average wages increase, and all but four saw the total number of establishments increase.

“This is another indication that our state’s labor market is showing incredible strength as we enter the third year of economic recovery,” said S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce Executive Director Dan Ellzey. “South Carolina is a great place to start a business, as many thousands of owners have discovered, and our workers are benefiting from the prosperity that is being created.”

“It is worth noting that, if anything, these figures likely understate job creation in South Carolina,” said S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce LMI Director Dr. Bryan Grady. “The volume of data produced by the QCEW program is simply immense, but it does not include data on people who decided to bet on themselves and work as a proprietor or contractor during the pandemic. In our Local Area Unemployment Statistics data, there were an estimated 2,312,616 people working in South Carolina in April, exceeding pre-pandemic highs set in 2019 by nearly 50,000.”

For more information, interested parties can review the attached tables and contact communications@dew.sc.gov with any press inquiries or interview requests for the LMI Division. The full data set is available on our website at https://jobs.scworks.org/qcew. For questions about these data and more, feel free to email lmicustomerservice@dew.sc.gov. The monthly Employment Situation report will be released on Friday, June 17, detailing May workforce data.

Establishments, Employment, and Average Weekly Wage (AWW) by Industry

*Average Weekly Wage

Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce / U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Establishments, Employment, and Average Weekly Wage (AWW) by County

*Average Weekly Wage

Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce / U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics