More money and more jobs

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The jobs pay well, as annual wages are projected to average $34,773, nearly one-third greater than the state's per capita income. Also, a healthy share of those new jobs has been created in areas of South Carolina where people are desperate for work. This is especially good news given that this state continues to post a net job loss in manufacturing and the textile industry continues to decline. Textile employment in South Carolina has dwindled to historic lows. Especially hard hit by these trends have been rural counties such Laurens and Union.

But in 2004, Union emerged as one of the state's biggest winners in job growth and investment, owed mostly to Dollar General's $60 million investment that will create 725 new jobs. Overall, about 25 percent of new job growth was in rural counties, which, according to Secretary of Commerce Bob Faith, exceeded the state's goals for last year.

Yet for all the reasons to celebrate, it's apparent South Carolina still has plenty of work remaining to build a solid economy and fulfill its stated goal of raising incomes, an objective championed most vocally by Gov. Mark Sanford.

It's good news whenever rural counties get more jobs and investment. Yet it's obvious, too, that this state has to get more South Carolinians working. Pockets of extraordinarily high unemployment exist in rural areas, making job growth and capital investment in those counties one of this state's biggest challenges.

There is double-digit unemployment in 14 counties. They are all rural. In 12 other counties, unemployment is below the national and state percentages. Most of those counties comprise the state's urban centers.

Fortunately, this state's leadership understands that branch manufacturing is no longer a viable answer for all of this state's job needs. Manufacturing is adding few jobs and corporations continue to outsource. Meanwhile, South Carolina is creating an alternative path to growth, pinning its future on economic clustering — a concept that promotes collaboration around demonstrated strengths. It also calls for improvements to higher education to create expertise and produce a more educated work force. The good news for rural areas is that the clustering model applies to all industries, from agriculture to tourism.

The latest job and investment figures, while generally good news, underscore why this state needed to change its approach to creating jobs and attracting investment.