Facing worker shortage, SC now requires unemployment recipients to search for work
This week, South Carolina reinstated the requirement that people must be actively searching for work to remain eligible for weekly unemployment benefits.
Removing the work search requirement last year was one of the biggest changes to how unemployment insurance operated during the coronavirus pandemic. It allowed people to not have to go back to work even when jobs were available if they were worried about exposure to the coronavirus.
Now, as the tourism industry faces what experts call a historic worker shortage, the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce says it’s time for people to start looking for jobs again.
The state first made its announcement three weeks ago that the work search requirement would return April 18. On Friday, DEW said the state’s falling unemployment rate, now at 5.1%, coupled with the thousands of unfilled jobs across the statevaffirmed their decision
“We continue to be encouraged by the progress being made in the state’s economic recovery as more South Carolinians head back to work,” DEW Executive Director Dan Ellzey said in a statement.
Ellzey said there are 85,000 jobs posted by employers in the state and 116,000 people receiving unemployment benefits each week.
“That really does not make sense, and we have to get people to start looking for jobs,” Ellzey said in a statement.
Here are the two requirements to keep receiving unemployment benefits starting this week.
Complete two work searches in your S.C. Works Online Services account or its corresponding app.
Certify your claim in the MyBenefits portal or on the S.C. DEW app.
Hospitality worker shortage
Most industries in South Carolina gained workers in March, including construction, transportation, manufacturing and professional and business services. Hospitality and leisure job growth, however, remained flat.
That lack of growth happened in a month when businesses found themselves flooded with tourists but not enough employees to meet demand. Around Myrtle Beach, it’s hard to find a restaurant or hotel that doesn’t have a help wanted sign.
“The pandemic still exists. I think there are people that are still afraid of working in close quarters in something like a restaurant,” said Federal Reserve economist Laura Ullrich, adding that needing to care for virtual-schooled children and access to unemployment benefits might also be depressing worker turnout. “It’s not one thing. I don’t think it’s just the virus itself. I don’t think it’s just the unemployment (benefits). I think it’s a whole host of factors that are kind of interwoven together.”
In Myrtle Beach, worker shortages are not new. Hospitality businesses struggle to find workers every year, tourism experts say. But this year the problem is particularly dire, Myrtle Beach Hospitality Association CEO Stephen Greene said.
Each week since February, the number of visitors coming to town has rapidly increased. The week of April 5 saw the highest hotel occupancy rate since August. On Saturday night, nearly every fast-food business on Kings Highway had lines going down the street. Most restaurants had waits, even at 10 p.m.
Pulse Ultra Club, the Grand Strand’s only gay club, was packed with lines out the door, with North Carolina college students visiting town for spring Greek life events.
One of the biggest issues for understaffed businesses is the a lack of international workers caused by restrictions around the globe, Greene said. President Joe Biden recently lifted restrictions that barred workers from two prominent international worker programs, J1 and H2B. That only solves one end of the problem, Greene said, because many potential workers would come from countries with travel restrictions, or their local U.S. consulates are not open, preventing them from getting a visa.
Some Myrtle Beach businesses blame the high unemployment payments Americans are getting as a result of the three stimulus bills passed by the federal government. These businesses say potential workers are getting paid as much, if not more to stay at home when compared with getting a job.
Some economists have suggested that the solution is to pay higher wages. A few area businesses have even taken that path, WMBF News reported last week. Co Sushi in the Market Common and Beach Landscaping in Myrtle Beach are both offering hundreds of dollars in sign-on bonuses to help attract workers.
However, Greene said this can be a dangerous path to take because the overall shortage of workers will cause businesses to start cannibalizing each other’s employees over small wage increases.
“It’s not that we have a huge influx of new workers that we’re luring into the market. We’re just basically bouncing workers from one business to the other,” Greene said. “Because it’s not that raising the wages all of a sudden opens the floodgates.”
Instead, Greene and the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce have been focusing on expanding the pool of workers that businesses can draw from. They’ve also worked in recent weeks to connect potential workers who might not know where to look, like high schoolers, with businesses in need of employees. The Chamber also has a virtual job bank where employers can post openings for free.
The Chamber hosted a drive-thru job fair in mid-March and held a virtual job fair with Horry County schools on Monday. The Chamber also said it is “working with Coastal Carolina University to recruit students and offer summer housing for students who elect to stay and work.”
