Publisher’s Note: As you probably witnessed in the months following Helene’s wrath, workers were out and about helping rebuild. Damaged homes, businesses, and public infrastructure were getting rebuilt. Demand was created for construction, engineering, skilled trades, and logistical movers. Federal and relief funds stimulated recovery efforts, but how much? The numbers may surprise you.
In terms of employment, both Columbia County in Georgia and Aiken County in South Carolina saw employment increase from December to March by 1.89% and 0.1% respectively. Moreover, March employment in both counties was higher than in March 2024, by 1.85% in Columbia County and 3.2% in Aiken. For context, annual employment growth was 0.44% in Georgia and 1.7% in South Carolina.
The only other local county that saw employment increase was Edgefield County. March 2024 to March 2025 growth was 5.2%, although employment fell by 3.7% in the first quarter.
All other MSA counties saw employment fall in the first quarter and over the last year. The largest year-on-year decline in employment was in Burke County, which lost about 200 jobs, or 2.6%. Lincoln County lost 1.7% of jobs over the year to March, but that was only 24 jobs.
In terms of wages, all counties of the MSA had higher wages in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024. Edgefield County had the largest increase in wages at 7.0%, followed by Burke County at 4.4%. Burke County also had a whopping 39% increase in wages between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. This is not unusual, occurring for the past decade. Manufacturing wages in Burke County increased 23.0% and trade, transportation, and utilities grew by $1,300 to $3,365, about on par with recent years. Aiken County was the only other county to see wage growth in the first quarter.
Overall, most wage growth has lagged the Georgia and South Carolina state averages. Employment growth has been more of a mixed bag, with some counties doing well and others not so much.
