Proterra's employment impact

By John Boyanoski  

FEBRUARY 11, 2010 4:10 p.m. (0)

Energy-efficient bus maker, Proterra, would become Greenville’s fourth-largest manufacturer if it is able to make good on its jobs projection of 1,300 hires in the next five years.

However, while Greenville was once known as a manufacturing city, its jobs base has changed just like the rest of the nation. The biggest employers now are in the service industry with 36 percent of jobs falling in the category, according to the federal bureau of labor statistics.

The two biggest employers in Greenville are the school district with 9,138 people and Greenville Hospital System with 7,207 people. Of the top 10 employers in the county,  three are in education, two are in manufacturing, two are health services, two are government and the tenth is engineering, Fluor.

Greenville’s largest manufacturing company is Michelin North America with 4,000 employees throughout the county with a nucleus of them working at the facilities at the intersection of Interstate 85 and Pelham Road. It is the third overall largest employer.

General Electric employs 3,100 people in its wind turbine plant and research and development center on Garlington Road, but roughly one-third of those people are engineers. GE is the fourth-largest employer.

Sealed Air Corp.’s Cryovac division employs 1,400 people making plastic bags and film. That makes it the third-largest manufacturer, but the 11^th overall largest employer.

In between GE and Cryovac are Fluor, the state government, Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital System, Bob Jones University, Greenville County and Greenville Technical College.

Hal Johnson, president of the Upstate Alliance, said that is a good diversification of jobs for Greenville. The jobs dedicated for education is a good lure for potential businesses. Two large hospital systems also is a good recruiting tool.

“That is significant,” he said. “Of course, you always want to be adding to that base.”

However, where Greenville is lacking is in industries such as finance and insurance that would create a multitude of high-paying jobs and spin off other firms, Johnson said.

Jerry Howard, president of the Greenville Area Development Corp., said Greenville’s economy is diverse, but the unemployment rate is 10.5 percent.

“That’s the anomaly,” he said.

The data signifies a changing shift in the county’s job climate.

In 1969, 90.7 percent of the 120,051 workers here were employees for a private or public enterprise; 8.8 ran their own businesses and 0.5 percent owned farms, a Journal analysis of federal records showed.

Of those workers, 44,327, or 36.9, punched the clock at the mills in the area; 16.5 percent worked in the service industry and 13.5 percent worked in retail.

The most current data shows that 85.5 percent of the county’s 300,849 workers are not their own bosses, while 14.2 percent are and 0.3 run farms. Those service industry jobs now employ 107,640, or 35.8 percent, while retail makes up 12.9 percent and manufacturing is 10.8.

Service industry jobs have grown 445 percent since 1969, which was the biggest jump of any industry, according to the data. The second biggest increase came in people running their own companies, 305.3 percent, which could indicate Greenville’s growing entrepreneurial spirit.

Johnson said the future likely will be in the energy sector as most economic development groups in South Carolina are looking at alternative fuels such as hydrogen, solar and wind to help spur the state’s business future.

“There is a significant base,” he said.

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