Columbia, South Carolina

FEATURED MARKET HOME

COLUMBIA SUBMARKETS

Economic Overview
Over the last twelve months employment in Columbia has increased by nearly 12,000 jobs and the unemployment rate has dropped from 5.1% to 4.9%. The trend going forward is also positive with the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina forecasting an additional 8,800 new jobs in 2007.

The largest employers in the area include Palmetto Health Alliance, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina, Lexington Medical Center and Bell South

Employment / Economic Announcements
• A subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield will lay off about
700 employees or almost one third of its Columbia workforce
after the company lost two major contracts. The
company is bidding on other large contracts that might
allow a rehiring of some of these employees but the outcome
of those contracts will not be known until July and
September.
• Staples, the office supply chain of stores, is relocating 250
accounting jobs from Illinois and Massachusetts to Richland
County.
• Duck Creek, an insurance software company, announced
plans to employ 200 people at USC’s Innovista research
campus.
• Selectron, a computer company, is expanding its facility
near Columbia Metropolitan Airport with an additional
100,000 square feet and plans to hire an additional 120
employees. The firm currently employs 400 people.
• Otis Spunkmeyer has announced plans to enlarge its
Cayce cookie production facility and anticipates employing
a further 80 people.
• ADC Telecommunications has announced that it will
open its first production plant in Lexington County. The
company will initially employ 15 people and expect that
number to increase to 65 by the end of 2007.
• Smurfit Stone Container announced plans to close its box
plant by the end of the first quarter 2007 with the loss of
105 jobs.