1 week Ago
South Carolina is home to some of the nation’s most beautiful state parks, beaches and natural scenery, as well as lively amusement parks, restaurants and many sources of entertainment. The leisure and hospitality industry makes up 12.7% of our state’s workforce, with more than 16,000 employers, almost 282,000 jobs, an impressive 18% growth rate over the past decade and a more than $28 billion impact on the state’s economy.
We can attribute seasonal, part-time and full-time hires to the rise of tourism, primarily in customer service, food preparation and service, administration and operation management. As the executive directors of the S.C.
Department of Employment and Workforce and the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, as well as fellow members of the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development, we want to highlight the ample opportunities and importance of leisure and hospitality occupations as jobseekers, including young people looking for their first part-time-job, search for employment.
While seasonal work is readily available, so are countless long-term careers for those interested in ongoing part-time and full-time work. Starting or advancing a career in this industry has never been easier, and the time has never been better to find gainful employment. Leisure and hospitality jobs fall within two major sectors: the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, which includes amusement parks, museums, performing arts, sports and state parks; and the accommodation and food services sector, which includes traveler accommodations, restaurants and bars.
Within these sectors is a wide array of career pathways requiring different credentials and skills, meaning jobseekers from all backgrounds and interests can potentially find work and even grow throughout their careers in multiple positions within the industry. To promote the wide range of career opportunities in our state’s diverse industries, including leisure and hospitality, the coordinating council recently launched the Find Your Future SC website . This website is a repository of relevant information and services that connects jobseekers of all ages with employers and careers throughout the state.
The Find Your Future SC website incorporates DEW’s Explore SC@Work campaign, which aims to spotlight the variety of fulfilling occupations in South Carolina. Each occupational flyer shows the typical wage, projected job growth, credentials, daily work activities and even which regions of the state and employers are hiring for this job the most. We encourage jobseekers to use these flyers to discover the breadth of leisure and hospitality occupations, like working in hotels, being a live animal supervisor, being a cashier, working as a waiter or waitress or in landscaping or groundskeeping, to name just a few.
For example, this week’s featured occupation is a lifeguard, with information available on the website and through DEW’s social media accounts. Being a lifeguard — part-time or full-time — allows you to keep our water attractions safe while learning lifelong lessons about responsibility, customer service and effective communication, among other soft skills. South Carolina’s state parks also offer more than 150 seasonal, part-time employment opportunities across the state, from Hunting Island and Myrtle Beach on the coast to Paris Mountain and Devils Fork in the Upstate.
Interested jobseekers can inquire about these openings by contacting their local park; contact information is on PRT’s State Parks Park Finder Map. These seasonal jobs range from park attendants and retail positions to positions in facilities and groundskeeping. Our state’s parks always want to welcome new full-time park rangers and other staff.
Jobseekers can search for openings in the leisure and hospitality industry by visiting the state’s largest online job database via SC Works. Teenagers can also take advantage of the Youth Employment Site, a job board specifically tailored for young people to find part-time work sponsored by Lt. Gov.
Pamela Evette. Anyone can also visit an SC Works center in person or online to receive resume support, interview prep, job matching and other employment services at no cost to take the next step in pursuing a career in this terrific industry. Now is the time to explore and experience a job in leisure and hospitality.
There are so many success stories of individuals starting a part-time job and building a thriving career from that introduction — waiters become restaurant managers, concierges become hotel administrators, rangers become conservation directors and so on. Whether the backdrop of a summertime job is a luxury hotel or an RV camp, a rollercoaster or a theater stage, or even one of South Carolina’s beautiful beaches or mountains, the jobs are plentiful, the rewarding experiences are priceless, and the opportunities to find lifelong careers within the industry are limitless. William Floyd is the executive director of the S.
C. Department of Employment and Workforce and Chair of the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development. Duane Parrish is the executive director of the S.
C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism..
