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All offices will reopen on Monday, December 29th. Please know that unemployment payments may be delayed depending on your financial institution's holiday schedule.

Executive Director William Floyd's September 2025 Employment Statement

Thu, 12/11/2025

Employment and Workforce Executive Director William Floyd’s Statement

September 2025 Employment Situation

 

Columbia, S.C. – The federal government shutdown delayed monthly employment reporting, including today’s release of the September 2025 data. It is expected that partial information for October 2025 will be released along with a full report for November 2025 on January 7, 2026. Because the office of 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month of October, the information necessary to produce an unemployment rate for that month was not collected and will not be published. However, the payroll information from the state’s businesses for the month of October, which is an automated process, will be released along with November’s numbers early next year. 

“In September, South Carolina’s unemployment rate ticked up one-tenth of one percent to 4.4%, in line with the national rate. The labor force increased month-over-month to a record high of 2,582,851, with an estimated 2,468,922 residents working,” said the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) Executive Director William Floyd. “While we did experience a slight decline in the number of individuals working on business payrolls between August and September, South Carolina has continued to see strong year-over-year growth across most industry sectors.”

“Throughout the federal government shutdown, our agency remained busy connecting jobseekers and employers. With a successful end to September’s Workforce Development Month, we dove right into October, in which we celebrated both Manufacturing Month and National Disability Employment Awareness Month. November was Veterans in the Workforce Month with activities to highlight and help the state’s veterans, including the Operation Employment Career Fair on the U.S.S. Yorktown,” continued Floyd.

“As we begin December, we have a busy month of job fairs, both virtual and in-person, throughout the state, and we are planning 2026 with the same commitment and success with which we ended 2025,” concluded Floyd.