Chamber wants to increase per capita income

Accelerate plan needs $4 million

JANUARY 20, 2010 1:51 p.m. (0)

Greenville Chamber of Commerce leaders unveiled a $4 million campaign Wednesday morning aimed at adding 15,000 jobs in the next five years to help reverse a trend of stagnating income for county residents.

The plan, dubbed Accelerate, calls for strengthening the business climate through investment and legislation; generating high impact start-ups and developing the region’s talent pool.  Continue reading...

 

Feds boast of 9,200 new jobs here

But comptroller says numbers don't provide an accurate snapshot of employment in South Carolina

JANUARY 26, 2010 11:12 a.m. (0)

The federal government is expected to announce later this week that 9,200 jobs have been created or saved in South Carolina due to the American Recovery Act being enacted almost one year ago.

However, the exact details of what those jobs were and who got them is somewhat of a mystery, and one that is open to speculation, said Richard Eckstrom, South Carolina’s comptroller general.  Continue reading...

 

Proterra's employment impact

1,300 jobs would rank bus maker No. 4

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.  Continue reading...

 

NuVox job losses fewer than 60

Company now employs 700 here

FEBRUARY 11, 2010 4:27 p.m. (0)

NuVox employees learned this week that less than 60 people will lose their jobs as part of the telecommunications company’s sale to Arkansas-based Windstream.

The jobs will be spread through various sectors of the company and will take place over the next few weeks, said Brent Whittington, Windstream’s chief operating officer.  Continue reading...

 

More jobs in the works for Greenville County

Fountain Inn company adds 50

FEBRUARY 17, 2010 9:44 a.m. (0)

Industrial hydraulics maker Bosch Rexroth announced this morning that it plans to add 50 jobs in Greenville County as part of $10 million upgrade to its Fountain Inn operations.

The company currently employs 400 people at its facility in the Southchase Industrial Park. In addition to the industrial hydraulics, the company also makes piston units and pumps at the plant.  Continue reading...

 

Jobless figures up, but not by much

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010 2:16 p.m. (0)

A crisis of confidence and uncertainty about major federal legislation is helping to drive state and national jobless figures upward, said an economist with the University of South Carolina this week.

South Carolina’s jobless rate inched up to 11 percent in August, up from 10.7 percent in July, according to state figures.

“That’s not statistically significant,” said John McDermott, chair of the economics department at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. “While it is distressing that joblessness is up, the actual increase (0.3 percent) is quite small and can be explained through a variety of things like people coming back into the job market.”  Continue reading...

 

Start-up delayed

Electric car company pushes launch to December

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010 2:20 p.m. (0)

The delay in startup of electric cars in Duncan will not affect the company’s state and local incentives package, but it will push back hiring at the facility, a company spokesman said this week.

If there are no more delays, the plant could be up and running in three to six months.

Curt Westlake, spokesman for CT&T in the company’s Atlanta office, said the delay was caused by the need to complete the distribution network.  Continue reading...

 

Workforce enabled

When it comes to manufacturing, knowing when to hire and when to let go is a matter of thinking outside the box

NOVEMBER 29, 2010 2:29 p.m. (0)

When BMW needs workers to ramp up production, it turns to a Georgia company for contingent workers.  When it needs to slow down, it lets them go.

With production on the upswing so is hiring of these full-time contingent workers by BMW’s employment partner since 2006, MAU Workforce Solutions of Augusta.

By year’s end, more than 1,600 MAU workers will be on the job, about 23 percent of BMW’s workforce of 7,000 at the Greer plant.  The vast majority are material handlers, such as forklift operators, and other logistic production workers.  Continue reading...

 

Top 10 scams

Better Business Bureau releases list of what to watch out for

JANUARY 6, 2011 12:30 p.m. (0)

Scam artists are making the most of tough economic times, targeting victims struggling to make ends meet in a down economy, the Better Business Bureau reports.

In a listing of the top 10 scams and rip-offs of 2010, the bureau reported that job seekers and cash strapped families have become popular targets.

“With the economy still on the mend, scammers had a field day targeting struggling families who were looking for work and trying to make ends meet,” said Kathy Barrett, president Better Business Bureau. “While some of the most popular scams are perennial problems that have always plagued consumers, some new additions to the list are signs of our tough economic times.”  Continue reading...

 

Need a lawyer? They're out there

Some say South Carolina has more lawyers than jobs, others disagree

JUNE 30, 2011 11:48 a.m. (0)

South Carolina, along with just about every other state, is producing far more lawyers than there are jobs, according to Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. or EMSI, but a spokesman for the Charleston School of Law doesn’t believe that’s so.

EMSI said almost twice as many people passed the 2009 South Carolina bar exam (506) as job openings (262).  That’s not the experience of graduates of the Charleston School of Law, said Andrew Brock, school spokesman.

He said the EMSI data appears to be misleading in that it seems to include only lawyers going to law firms.  Continue reading...

 

Bi-Lo reassures Upstate it won’t ‘back away’

Grocery company will retain a "reasonable presence" here after headquarters move to Florida

MARCH 22, 2012 1:50 p.m. (0)

As the company finds cost-savings in the merger of Bi-Lo and Winn-Dixie, jobs will be lost but new ones created when corporate headquarters moves from Mauldin to Florida, Michael Byars, Bi-Lo president said.

Beyond that, Bi-Lo’s purchase of the larger Winn-Dixie gives the combined company of 688 stores and 63,000 employees in eight southeastern states “more opportunity for growth and sharing of ideas than what Bi-Lo or Winn-Dixie could have done as individual companies,” he said. “Our plans are not to just stop with Winn-Dixie and Bi-Lo. We want to remodel stores, open new stores and possibly add to our structure as well.”

Byars said it is “totally impossible” at this early stage to determine how many corporate employees in Mauldin will be affected, but the company is committed to “a strong reasonable presence” in Greenville.  Continue reading...