WORKFORCE

Building the Ideal Workforce

South Carolina is committed to growing and developing its world-class agribusiness industry and workforce. Clemson University’s College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences offers many degree programs, both undergraduate and graduate, related to the agribusiness industry like agricultural education, agricultural business, forest resources management and food packaging science. SC State University and the SC Governor’s School of Agriculture offer programs to train and prepare the next generation of leaders in agriculture. These are just a few examples of South Carolina’s commitment to developing programs that support the state’s agribusiness.

Quick Facts about SC’s Agribusiness Workforce:

Did you know?

SC’s Governor’s School for Agriculture is the first statewide program of its kind in the nation!

With one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the nation, combined with highly competitive wages, more and more people call South Carolina home. In fact, the state’s fast-growing labor force has consistently outpaced national growth levels. There have been several reasons why businesses have turned to South Carolina for their future. Some of them are:

Hidden Row
Right-to-Work State
South Carolina is a Right-to-Work state, supporting the rights of employees to decide for themselves whether to join or financially support a union, creating a more stable labor market and environment for businesses in the state.
Higher Education
More than 240,000 students are enrolled in the state’s public and private institutions. Additionally, South Carolina has three internationally recognized university research institutions and is home to one of America’s 17 national laboratories.
Low Unionization Rate
South Carolina has the 6th lowest unionization rate in the nation, enabling businesses to benefit from a stable, highly productive work environment, which also minimizes the threat of businesses paying inflated wages to workers. Both South Carolina’s total unionization rate of 4.6% and private company unionization rate of 2.9% are significantly lower than the national average.
SC Technical College System

The South Carolina Technical College System is comprised of 16 community-based technical colleges throughout the state. Home to the readySC™ program, the SC Technical College System serves more than 160,000 students and excels at creating programs that meet the needs of area businesses and industries.

If you are interested in apprenticeship opportunities in South Carolina, we invite you to visit www.apprenticeshipcarolina.com.

readySC™

For more than 50 years, the SC Technical College System has offered one of the state’s most powerful economic development incentives, readySC™, providing qualifying companies investing in South Carolina with well-trained and highly motivated employees. The program’s comprehensive and customized process includes recruiting, screening and training. Driven exclusively by a company’s needs and time frames, readySC™ has trained more than a quarter-million workers for almost 2,000 companies since the program’s inception.

LEARN MORE ABOUT readySC™