RECENT NUMBERS on job losses in South Carolina should be worrisome to leaders in business and government; they add weight to the argument that we need a new view of how to shape the state’s economy for the new century.

Numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics analyzed by The State show that job losses during 2002 were concentrated disproportionately among our best-paying jobs. What’s worse: The best-paying jobs in our economy don’t pay nearly as well as that same top quarter does in other states. It’s in that top-paying 25 percent of employment where South Carolina falls furthest behind the rest of the country.

In one sense, it may seem an unlikely set of numbers to be alarmed by. Why should government, for instance, worry so much about the best earners? But this pay class consists of many of South Carolina’s best and brightest, and these troubles highlight why so many talented young people leave the state to launch their careers — or new businesses. If South Carolina can’t reward its higher achievers as well as other places can, the state won’t make progress.

These employment numbers validate Gov. Mark Sanford’s new benchmark for economic development. As a candidate, Mr. Sanford said his goal would be to increase average incomes in the state, not just to be able to brag about how many jobs his administration brought in. These numbers put South Carolina’s shortfall in sharp relief. It’s now up to the governor — and other state leaders — to do something about it.

These numbers also should be seen as reinforcing the message of the Palmetto Institute, the group of business leaders headed by Darla Moore. The institute has been preaching that South Carolina had to focus on key, better-paying industries in which to invest its limited resources.

Much of the loss of jobs in this income bracket comes from struggles in the manufacturing sector. This is an area in economic transition; South Carolina must find some high-end specialties that will be viable in the future. The old strategy of recruiting by promoting our cheap labor has put us behind the rest of the country, and world competition is making it irrelevant, anyway. If advanced manufacturing can be a component in South Carolina’s economic future, it will have to be based in skills that can’t easily be replicated in the Third World. If it can do that, though, those jobs might pay enough to lift the state’s economic prospects.

These job loss numbers were generated, of course, at about the lowest point of the recent economic downturn, so they may be more drastic than at other times in the business cycle. But there’s little, if anything, to suggest that the national recovery we’re enjoying will rebuild the ranks of South Carolina’s best-paying positions. It’s more likely that jobs South Carolina lost in the downturn won’t be coming back in the recovery, at least in the same form.

Was much of this economic damage done by simple market forces, and circumstances outside the control of South Carolina? Of course. This is a global economy; few companies are headquartered in the Palmetto State now. But South Carolina cannot defer to those forces; it must plan and coordinate its actions to negotiate these economic tides, with new strategies to encourage better-paying industries. If it can’t create an ample number of better jobs at the top tier of its economy, South Carolina will not offer its children the promise of succeeding without fleeing the state.