News

Inside SC Business: Manufacturing a Longer Workweek

September 14, 2010

Recent national economic news included a boost in the Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers’ Index, which measures production, supplier deliveries, employment, new orders and inventories. The index’s rise shows manufacturing workers in South Carolina faced longer work weeks. Between June and July, the manufacturing work week increased 19 percent, or by 7.8 hours. The previous three years those average hours fell. Work weeks last longer when production orders increases. And with heightened demand, 2,000 more workers were hired into South Carolina’s manufacturing industry between June and July.

Average Manufacturing Weekly Hours 2010
                  S.C.   U.S.
January   41.2   39.7
February 40.3   39.2
March      41.3   39.9
April         41.6   40.1
May          42.1   40.5
June        41.6   40.2
July          49.4   40