Inequalities amid Rapid Growth: A Descriptive Assessment of Employment Outcomes within and between Occupations in Spartanburg’s Regional Labor Market
Abstract
The Spartanburg metropolitan region has seen rapid population increase and also attracted substantial capital investment in the recent years since the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. News & World Report (Thorsby, 2023) ranked the Spartanburg, SC region as the 12th fastest growing place in their 2023-2024 rankings, and Spartanburg was notably the smallest place among the top 25 on that list. So, the rate of population increase may be associated with perceived and/or real large effects in the dynamics of the region’s labor market and the qualities of Spartanburg’s place character. OneSpartanburg, Inc. (2023) reported that Spartanburg County attracted $3.2 billion in investments associated with more than 1,700 new jobs. Just this summer, BMW broke ground on a battery new assembly plant in Woodruff, SC, which is expected to be part of a burgeoning EV manufacturing industry in the region over the next decade (Ludwig, 2023).
In this project, I examine the extent to which the Spartanburg regional labor market exhibits patterns of structural inequality. I draw on methods I have implemented in previous research projects (King, 2019; King and Crommelin, 2021) and develop a descriptive assessment of structural inequalities within and between occupations. I specifically examine manufacturing occupations, jobs within high-technology industries, the film and entertainment industry, and also education and healthcare (or “eds and meds”) occupations. Previous research demonstrates that disproportionate employment in some occupations leads to structural inequalities including segmented labor markets or gender and/or race-based occupational sorting (Kalleberg, 2003; Alonso-Villar and del Río, 2023). Studying data on employment and earnings in these occupation categories, I assess inequalities across demographic variables including race, gender, age, educational attainment geographic mobility, and industry. Recent investment and growth has created a dynamic labor market, but inequalities persists across occupations and industries in the Spartanburg region.
Keywords
Employment, inequality, labor market, region, economic development
Inequalities amid Rapid Growth: A Descriptive Assessment of Employment Outcomes within and between Occupations in Spartanburg’s Regional Labor Market
CASB 108
The Spartanburg metropolitan region has seen rapid population increase and also attracted substantial capital investment in the recent years since the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. News & World Report (Thorsby, 2023) ranked the Spartanburg, SC region as the 12th fastest growing place in their 2023-2024 rankings, and Spartanburg was notably the smallest place among the top 25 on that list. So, the rate of population increase may be associated with perceived and/or real large effects in the dynamics of the region’s labor market and the qualities of Spartanburg’s place character. OneSpartanburg, Inc. (2023) reported that Spartanburg County attracted $3.2 billion in investments associated with more than 1,700 new jobs. Just this summer, BMW broke ground on a battery new assembly plant in Woodruff, SC, which is expected to be part of a burgeoning EV manufacturing industry in the region over the next decade (Ludwig, 2023).
In this project, I examine the extent to which the Spartanburg regional labor market exhibits patterns of structural inequality. I draw on methods I have implemented in previous research projects (King, 2019; King and Crommelin, 2021) and develop a descriptive assessment of structural inequalities within and between occupations. I specifically examine manufacturing occupations, jobs within high-technology industries, the film and entertainment industry, and also education and healthcare (or “eds and meds”) occupations. Previous research demonstrates that disproportionate employment in some occupations leads to structural inequalities including segmented labor markets or gender and/or race-based occupational sorting (Kalleberg, 2003; Alonso-Villar and del Río, 2023). Studying data on employment and earnings in these occupation categories, I assess inequalities across demographic variables including race, gender, age, educational attainment geographic mobility, and industry. Recent investment and growth has created a dynamic labor market, but inequalities persists across occupations and industries in the Spartanburg region.