Advantage Greenville

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Although Greenville County has experienced significant growth over the past several decades and new projects continue to come our way, Greenville's overall economic vitality may not be as strong as it may seem on the surface.

A glance at the long-term trends in per capita income relative to the US tells the story. As the chart below shows, Greenville saw significant progress in catching up to US per capita income between 1982 and 1996, surpassing the US average in the late 1990s. However, Greenville saw six years of decline relative to the US, with the decline stopping (possibly temporarily) in 2005.

Why has there been such a decline? The reasons are many, but the Chamber goes back to the Monitor Group's well-known report on South Carolina's competitiveness. In this report, Dr. Porter emphasized that how we compete in our industries is more important that in what industries we are competing.  The factor that is most critical to the competitiveness of South Carolina is the "people factor." South Carolina responded to the workforce development challenges of a branch-manufacturing climate in the late 1960s by creating the technical schools system. Has South Carolina effectively responded to the workforce development challenges of a knowledge-based economy?  We believe that much more remains to be done.

Advantage Greenville is a local response to this statewide issue and offers an opportunity for you to become involved in the discussions and actions needed to be taken to enhance South Carolina's competitive position. We offer you an opportunity to join with a group of local businesspersons, educators, community developers and many others who are dedicated to seeing Greenville enhance its community-wide wealth. In the long-term, we hope to see the per capita income trend reverse itself such that Greenville's per capita income surpasses that of the national average.

For more information on Advantage Greenville visit the AG Blog, The Advantage, at www.advantagegreenville.blogspot.com or contact Hank Hyatt at 864-239-3735.