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Labor Market Pulse
Florence, SC Metro Edition
Focus: IT
Florence jobs shrink, wages jump — a scarcity story, not growth.
96,200
Florence MSA employment
Down 400 jobs YoY, June 2026
+15.3% YoY
Florence avg weekly wage growth
vs 4.0% statewide weekly wage growth
4.6%
Florence County unemployment
July 2026, vs 3.2% SC preliminary rate
-14.4%
Help Desk pay gap vs national
$45,937 metro vs $53,644 national median
This Month's Takeaways
Florence wages are rising while the job base shrinks.
A 15.3% year-over-year wage jump alongside 400 fewer jobs than a year ago is not broad economic growth — it reflects employers paying premiums to retain scarce skilled workers in a tightening local supply. IT leaders should treat local wage inflation as a retention signal, not evidence of market expansion to hire into.
Help desk pay in Florence lags national rates by 14%.
Advertised Help Desk/IT Support pay sits at $45,937 locally against $53,644 nationally, a significant gap that is widening rather than closing. That spread makes this role a strong candidate for outsourcing or managed support, freeing budget for specialized retention elsewhere.
Cybersecurity pay gap with the national market is a retention risk.
Florence Cybersecurity Analyst pay sits roughly $12,000 below the national median and both are described as stable, meaning the gap is not closing organically. National data shows senior security talent commanding up to $400K, so Florence employers risk losing mid-career analysts to remote-eligible national postings if pay holds flat.
Transportation and warehousing growth could reshape IT support demand.
Projected 42.9% growth in transportation and warehousing employment locally points toward rising demand for logistics-adjacent IT infrastructure, networking, and systems support. IT leaders in or serving this sector should plan headcount and vendor capacity ahead of that expansion rather than reactively.
Local Labor Conditions
Florence MSA employment slipped to 96,200 in June 2026, down 400 jobs year-over-year, even as the unemployment rate eased to 4.8% and Florence County posted 4.6% in July — a tightening rate against a shrinking job base that signals labor supply constraints rather than hiring strength. Average weekly wages jumped 15.3% year-over-year to $903.56 despite a monthly dip, a pattern consistent with employers paying up for scarce skilled labor in a metro with no major expansion announcements this quarter.
Leadership & Talent Implications
A contracting employment base paired with sharp wage acceleration suggests Florence IT employers are competing for a shrinking local technical talent pool rather than benefiting from broad market growth, raising the cost of permanent headcount in infrastructure and support roles that are easier to source remotely or through contract arrangements. Statewide skills-gap pressure in cybersecurity and engineering, combined with Charleston and Columbia pulling talent through remote-friendly postings, means Florence-based roles increasingly compete on a statewide and national pay basis rather than a local one. Consider reviewing whether commodity IT functions — help desk, basic systems administration — can shift toward contract or managed-services arrangements while reserving permanent budget for cybersecurity and cloud roles facing the steepest national pay growth.
