How many people are laid off in South Carolina each month?
Updates published monthly
About 25,000 in January 2025. This includes all terminations of employment by an employer — called layoffs and discharges — such as permanent layoffs, temporary layoffs, and terminations because of mergers, downsizing, closings, or employee performance.
25K
people were laid off or discharged in South Carolina in January 2025
25K
layoffs and discharges in South Carolina in 2025 so far
Layoffs are a constant in the labor market — from 2001 to 2019, there was an average of 348,000 layoffs and discharges a year in South Carolina. Increases in layoffs often reflect recessions or other economic disruption. For example, record-setting layoffs and discharges occurred in March and April of 2020 because of COVID-19. So far in 2025, layoffs and discharges total 25,000 in South Carolina, which is 13.8% lower than the same period in 2024.
In South Carolina, layoffs were 13.8% lower by January 2025 than by January 2024.
Cumulative monthly layoffs and discharges in South Carolina, seasonally adjusted
Another way to consider this data is to look at the layoff and discharge rate. This puts layoffs and discharges in the context of the total number of people working by showing layoffs and discharges as a percent of employed people who were laid off during the given time period. This rate allows for better comparisons across time, industries, and places by adjusting for differences in the size of the working population.
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South Carolina’s layoff rate decreased between December and January 2025.
Seasonally adjusted US and South Carolina monthly layoff and discharge rates, Dec. 2000–Jan. 2025
In January 2025, 1.0% of people employed in South Carolina were laid off or discharged, a lower rate than December. Compared to the national numbers, the January 2025 rate in South Carolina was lower, meaning a lower share of the South Carolina working population was laid off or dismissed in January 2025 compared to the US overall.
Average layoff and discharge rates are also useful to consider because they smooth out short-term fluctuations and clarify long-term trends.
In January 2025, South Carolina’s 12-month average layoff rate was higher than the US average.
12-month rolling average layoff and discharge rates in the US and South Carolina, Nov. 2001–Jan. 2025
During the first 20 years of data, the 12-month average layoff and discharge rate in the US peaked at the end of the Great Recession in June 2009 at 1.8% and during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020 at 2.4%. South Carolina’s 12-month average layoff rate was 0.2 percentage points higher than the US rate in June 2009 and 0.2 percentage points lower in May 2020.
As of January 2025, South Carolina’s 12-month average layoff rate was higher than the US overall. At 1.2%, South Carolina’s average layoff and discharge rate increased 0.1 percentage points compared to one year prior (February 2023–January 2024 average). The rate increased 0.2 percentage points compared to two years prior (February 2022–January 2023 average).
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
The analysis was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by USAFacts for accuracy.
Page sources
USAFacts endeavors to share the most up-to-date information available. We sourced the data on this page directly from government agencies; however, the intervals at which agencies publish updated data vary.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
