Good signs for S.C. economy

Persisting bad news on the jobless front in South Carolina was tempered last week by our report that North Charleston has made the final two sites for Boeing's new 787 factory. The decision, expected by the end of next week, could mean hundreds of new jobs. According to some estimates, it could even mean thousands.

While the community awaits Boeing's decision, other developments this year suggest that state officials have gotten their act together on economic development, despite last week's sad tidings that South Carolina's unemployment rate rose slightly in September to a grim 11.6 percent.

The latest big catch came on Oct. 7 when Red Ventures, an Internet marketing and sales company, announced its plan to expand its operations and locate its headquarters in Lancaster County. That new operation will bring more than 1,000 new jobs to the state -- the third 1,000-job announcement by the S.C. Department of Commerce this year.

Locally, Scientific Research Corporation, an advanced engineering company, two weeks ago announced its plan to expand its operations in North Charleston, adding 300 jobs over the next five years. A week earlier, TBC Corporation (TBC) said it would develop a Tire Kingdom distribution center in Berkeley County, creating up to 100 jobs.

And earlier this month in the Upstate, BMW added another shift -- and about 700 jobs -- to its Greer production facility.

So Commerce Department Secretary Joe Taylor has fair grounds for seeing positive momentum building. He recently told us: "It's part of a cycle, like a wheel turning. It's going to be a really good fall."

He said South Carolina is well positioned to compete for new businesses thanks to increasingly effective teamwork by elected officials and a variety of "business friendly" advantages, including relatively low taxes, fuel costs and delivery costs, and tort and worker's comp reforms.

Mr. Taylor cited Charleston's deep channel port as a critical edge and called the recent hiring of Jim Newsome as executive director of the State Ports Authority "an enormous statement" that should advance the cause.

Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, made a positive statement of its own about our port's direction last week by reversing an earlier decision to leave Charleston at the end of 2010. Instead, the Danish company and the SPA signed a new contract that will run through 2014.

Such marketplace victories and Mr. Taylor's upbeat outlook make our state's economic prospects sound good.

But that 11.6 percent unemployment rate still sounds awful. So does the shortfall in the state's unemployment fund. The state has been forced to borrow nearly $1 billion from the federal government.

And the blundering S.C. Employment Security Commission is responsible for a debacle of major proportions. The agency's ineptness caused a gap in jobless payments that could affect more than 120,000 unemployed South Carolinians.

The Legislature will meet in special session today to restore emergency jobless benefits, funded under federal stimulus legislation.

Meanwhile, doesn't the possible impeachment of Gov. Mark Sanford undermine the state's economic development mission by creating a severe conflict between the legislative and executive branches?

Mr. Taylor, ever the optimist, replied: "Not a bit."

He praised the continuing -- and collaborative -- job-seeking efforts of the governor and legislative leaders, including House Speaker Bobby Harrell and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman: "When it comes to recruiting a business that will make capital investment in South Carolina and bring jobs to South Carolina, all politics go away."

So before succumbing to despair over South Carolina's economic plight, fairly consider the accumulating evidence of jobs headed our way -- and Secretary Taylor's contagious enthusiasm that they will soon lead to better economic days.