Wages and Jobs Reviewed

Even with the stresses of COVID-19 last year, Laurens County’s wages held on to gains. An analysis of wage growth in the county over the past twenty years was part of the picture painted this week during the Laurens County Development Corporation’s Annual Meeting. LCDC Executive Director Jonathan Coleman noted that the average hourly rate of pay in Laurens County was $13.47 back in 2000. He presented a chart showing an upward trend since then. The hourly wage reached $16 in 2018 and, even with COVID-19, was $17.31 for 2020. Coleman noted the average rate as of this month was $17.72.

Reviewing new jobs created by new project announcements, Laurens County has not seen anything since like the 1,091 new jobs announced in 2010. Halfway through the decade, there were 892 jobs announced in 2015. By 2018, only 74 new jobs were announced. That grew to 153 in 2019 and 200 new jobs were announced in 2020, even with the pandemic.

Last year’s larger number of new jobs announced included 80 noted with the announcement of Setterstix coming to the county. Setterstix announced the second highest capital investment of the year, at $11,700.000. The largest capital investment for 2020 was $20,570,000 from Alupress, which also was a close second in job creation, announcing 79 jobs for their Laurens County plant. Meiden announced 41 jobs with an $8,000,000 capital investment. Also contributing to a total capital investment of $56,970,000 for 2020 were Pine Gate Renewables and CCL Label. These companies had no new jobs noted with their investments.