|
Greenville County Planning Commission |
Economic Element
Economic vitality is key to Greenville County's future. Yet with growth, quality of life issues may be compromised. The ability to balance economic growth and quality of life is essential to the eventual overall success of Greenville.
This element undertakes the completion of an economic inventory for Greenville County, including both the positive and negative aspects, a needs assessment based upon the deficiencies of the economic welfare of the community, and goals and strategies to continue economic prosperity. Economic inventories reveal the economic health and characteristics of a community.
In this element of the plan, the following topics have been inventoried for Greenville County: Historical Account, Employment Trends, Labor Force, Unemployment, Occupation Status, Employment by Place of Work and Residence, Education, Economic Base, and Economic Forecast. The following are the results of the information compiled on economy.
Greenville County had an average labor force of 191,040 people, the highest in the state. The primary reason for this increase is the fact that more women are entering the work force. Consequently, 59 percent of all females 16 years and older in Greenville County were in the labor force in 1990, compared to only 48 percent in 1970.
The average unemployment rate in Greenville County in 1997 was 1.7 percent, one of the lowest in the state. According to the census, white males had the lowest unemployment rate at 1.6 percent while non white females had the highest unemployment rate at 8.2 percent.
|
In 1990, 90 percent of Greenville County's labor force worked in Greenville County. According to Figure 3 (left), all major standard industrial classification (SIC) categories had positive increases over the past two decades except for manufacturing, which declined 10.9 percent. Those |
|
14 |