Economic Development in South Carolina

[monsoon]

What do y'all think it will take for South Carolina to attract more high-tech jobs outside of Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston. The rest of the state gets these lousy manufacturing jobs. Yes jobs are great, but higher paying jobs would be much better.

Well..... I think there needs to be a focus on building home grown businesses rather than paying extortion money to large multinational corporations to put a token presence in SC. However this requires the state to make an investment in its people and that is something that SC has had a lot of difficulty in doing. The state for example has an excellent technical school at Clemson, there should be some focus on getting Clemson and the engineering program at USC to partner with start-ups. The example that I posted above about the lawnmower company working on alternative power mowers is one way. Give these people a reason to stay in SC.

The state also has to stop looking at workers as an expense in these deals and work towards building companies that compete with these people rather than competing against them. If you give people the idea they are considered an investment, rather than someone who has to compete against a chinese or mexican worker, I am willing to bet that you will get an equivalent + amount of productivity and innovation out of them, even when they are not college educated.

[krazeeboi]

Here's an interactive US MSA map and stats for 2009's predicted job losses.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009...nterstitialskip

All but three metro areas nationwide are in the negative. Wow...

[krazeeboi]

Well..... I think there needs to be a focus on building home grown businesses rather than paying extortion money to large multinational corporations to put a token presence in SC. However this requires the state to make an investment in its people and that is something that SC has had a lot of difficulty in doing. The state for example has an excellent technical school at Clemson, there should be some focus on getting Clemson and the engineering program at USC to partner with start-ups. The example that I posted above about the lawnmower company working on alternative power mowers is one way. Give these people a reason to stay in SC.

I agree, and I think small business incubators are the best way to do this. There are a couple throughout the state, but I don't know how they stack up with those in other states for the purpose of comparison.

[CorgiMatt]

I'm starting to think very seriously about leaving South Carolina.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20...ONTPAGECAROUSEL

[GvilleSC]

I'm starting to think very seriously about leaving South Carolina.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20...ONTPAGECAROUSEL

Have you lost your job?

[CorgiMatt]

No. I just don't like the idea of living in the third world compared to the rest of the nation. I'm talking about the state as a whole, not breaking it up into metros.

[GvilleSC]

No. I just don't like the idea of living in the third world compared to the rest of the nation. I'm talking about the state as a whole, not breaking it up into metros.

Ah, I see.

Well, I'm guessing that there is a reason you live in the state. I'd say that if South Carolina is a place you love, or you care for the people who live here, running from the problem is not going to help.

[krazeeboi]

This is nothing new. South Carolina hasn't had a strategy since it was obvious that textiles and manufacturing weren't going to sustain us much longer.

[Captain Worley]

^That's pretty much what I was thinking.

We need to work on education first. Industry will follow an educated workforce.

[CorgiMatt]

Here's some pretty good news for South Carolina. The Brookings Institution has Columbia listed in the second-strongest 20 metro areas for weathering the current economic storm and Greenville and Charleston listed in the third-strongest 20.

http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2009/06_metro_monitor.aspx

[krazeeboi]

Nice find, Corgi. Doesn't seem to be too different from what we've seen thus far: Florida and California are really getting hammered, while Texas, with its 6 largest metro areas all in the strongest 20 markets, is doing relatively well.

[monsoon]

I am not so sure. It shows upstate NY as a strong housing market, but it completely misses the point that this region went through de-industrialization years ago and housing prices there tanked over a decade and a half ago and never recovered. Texas and Oklahoma are very easy to explain. Oil and Gas. This is the home of petro based energy for the United States and money continues to pour in these areas not only because we still consume vast quantities of the stuff, but now because investors are pouring money into these markets to avoid the coming meltdown of the dollar.

Thus, I think the report is pretty meaningless. It doesn't even begin to address what has gone wrong with this economy and because they don't do that, it amounts to little more than trying to get a prediction out of the reading of chicken entrails.

[Spartan]

You make a valid point, but who's to say they haven't had strong housing market performance over the past year?

[monsoon]

Well, you be the judge. Here is a snapshot of the Rochester NY market. http://www.trulia.com/home_prices/New_York...ester-heat_map/

Other places I see are Buffalo (is there anyone even left there?), Albany which is the home of the NY State government and thus government jobs, Syracuse a huge college town, the mid-Hudson valley where I think there has also been a considerable decline. The rest of the dots are in the suburban NYC market and I simply don't believe the prices in places like Westchester county are holding. Then again this is where all the Wall Street money ended up.

[CorgiMatt]

I can't see where Upstate New York's housing values would have escalated much at all in the past few years or decade for that matter, so they probably didn't have far to fall if they fell at all, and housing markets that haven't seen a big tumble during this recession are probably considered by such prestigious think tanks as the Brookings Institution to have a relatively strong housing market currently.

[Topher1]

Exactly. This survey isn't necessarily saying that the top-20 markets are "strong," just that they're the most recession-proof. In the case of Upstate NY, it's simply because there really isn't much room for housing prices to go down; they're already incredibly cheap. In a report released earlier this year, the dying Upstate NY city I live in now (Binghamton) was listed as the 2nd strongest housing market in the country (something like a 9% year-to-year increase in home prices while the rest of the country was tanking)... This of course doesn't mean that Binghamton is making some sort of rebound, just that the market was way undervalued and still is... Similar story in the other metros; you can get some amazing homes in awesome neighborhoods in Rochester for a steal; good luck finding a job there though...

Edited June 18, 2009 by Topher1

[monsoon]

^Yeah but that is again more bad journalism because the reporting of percentages without looking at the data they were generated from is a meaningless activity but is often done to support some ill conceived notion. Percentages mean nothing without context.

i.e. $100 something drops to $10 in 6 months. This will be reported as a 90% drop. Then over the next 6 months the $10 something rises up to $19. This will be reported as a 90% increase. Notice in the first case 90% = $90. In the second case 90% = $9. You will get, record increases in prices reported which completely ignores the fact the place is still down 81%.

This is why that Brookings report is meaningless to what is going on in SC. Oh and again, they don't mention what is causing the collapse of the economy and hence can't many any accurate predictions, which they try, on which areas are doing better.

[CorgiMatt]

Here's a website called MetroMonitor. It shows the strength of the nation's metros in different economic categories. You can see how SC's metros are stacking up.

http://www.brookings.edu/metro/MetroMonito...l=1&v=38443

[distortedlogic]

Ouch! Here is an article abou tthe states new unemployment figures, where the state is now up to 12.1% !!! For the 3 major metros, Gville did significantly worse with a rate of 10.2, compared to Charleston's 8.6 and Lexington's 8.1. Indeed the entire upstate rate went up and it's numbers are looking awful. How can we (the upstate and the state) stop the bleeding?

[GvilleSC]

Ouch! Here is an article abou tthe states new unemployment figures, where the state is now up to 12.1% !!! For the 3 major metros, Gville did significantly worse with a rate of 10.2, compared to Charleston's 8.6 and Lexington's 8.1. Indeed the entire upstate rate went up and it's numbers are looking awful. How can we (the upstate and the state) stop the bleeding?

These are the county figures, I presume, comparing the lowest counties in each metro, and not the metros as a whole...?

Edited June 20, 2009 by GvilleSC

[monsoon]

These are the county figures, I presume, comparing the lowest counties in each metro, and not the metros as a whole...?

What?

[CorgiMatt]

The metros as a whole are Columbia 9.2, Charleston 9.4 and Greenville 10.3. Florence is 12.something.

[GvilleSC]

The metros as a whole are Columbia 9.2, Charleston 9.4 and Greenville 10.3. Florence is 12.something.

Thanks. That's what I was thinking. The scary thing is that Greenville and Pickens Counties are representing the lowest unemployment in the Upstate with 10.2.

[CorgiMatt]

A regional Home Depot distribution center is going up near I-26 and I-77. It will employ 300 people just north of the new State Farmer's Market.

http://www.thestate.com/business/story/841612.html

[CorgiMatt]

South Carolina: Way down south and long forgotten?

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20...ONTPAGECAROUSEL