Town of Summerville Planning Area - BCD Council of Governments

Unemployment and Employment OpportunitiesAccording to the South Carolina Labor One Stop, as of August 2010, over 6,400 residents in DorchesterCounty were unemployed. Of these individuals, approximately 40% resided in the Summerville area. Duringthis period, there were 1,303 job openings that were posted in Dorchester County, most of which werebased within the Planning Area. While the gap between local employment opportunities in Summerville isbetter than in Dorchester County as a whole, it still trails the rate for the metro Charleston region.Table ED1: Comparison of Unemployed Workers to Job Openings, August 2010Area Name Number of Unemployed Job Openings Number of Unemployedper Job OpeningCharleston MSA 32,997 19,302 1.71Dorchester 6,417 1,303 4.92Source: South Carolina Labor One StopOne‐Stop Career CentersAs part of the unemployment process, residents are able to utilize the Summerville One‐Stop Career Center,an affiliate of the Trident One Stop Career Centers overseen by the Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Councilof Governments, located on West 5 th North Street. One‐Stop Career Centers provide a range of services forthe job seeker, including classes related to finding and keeping a new job, including training on a range ofcomputer software applications, access to employers via job fairs held on‐site, job postings, and access tocomputers, printers, and copiers for creating resumes and sending out job applications. As part of theunemployment process, the newly unemployed are required to utilize the One Stop Career Center in orderto help to organize their job search.Labor ForceEmployer TypeAs of the most recent version of the American Community Survey (a 3 year rolling average that replaces theUS Census ‘long‐form), there were over 19,000 employed residents living within the Summerville Townlimits. Of these residents, over 14,400, or slightly more than 79 percent of employed residents, wereworking in private sector jobs. 3,225, or 16.6 percent of the total labor force, were working in the publicsector, and the remainder defined themselves as being self‐employed. Figure ED2 shows the breakdown ofworkers in Summerville by type of employer.Economic Development Element Page 2