The S.C. Legislature has taken steps to help the state’s citizens find better jobs by streamlining the state’s workforce efforts. The Department of Commerce is recruiting more and higher paying jobs. The result is that South Carolina has low unemployment, but employers are having an extremely difficult time finding people to work. At the heart of the problem is our labor force participation rate.

As of February, only 56% of people eligible to work (South Carolinians 16 years or older, excluding activeduty military and those in institutional settings) were either employed or actively seeking employment. This is the third-lowest rate in the United States.

Last year, the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce established a Labor Force Participation Task Force to determine what’s causing this problem. That group commissioned a survey of people who had jobs in 2019 , claimed unemployment benefits in 2020 and weren’t receiving wages in 2021. About 28% of them said they weren’t working but could work if the right opportunity arose.

When they were asked about their barriers to returning to the labor force, the top answers were pay (23%), health (20%), gaps in employment history (19%) and lack of transportation (18%).

In Tier IV counties — the most economically distressed areas in the state, which tend to be overwhelmingly rural — a lack of transportation was the most common reason for not being part of the labor force, with 27% naming this as a barrier. People simply can’t get to work. This is something that we in the public transit industry anecdotally hear from many HR departments, but it is amazing to have such clear confirmation.

This is at its core an economic development challenge that needs the focus of all levels of government, because if we can increase the state’s labor force participation rate by 1%, wages will increase by $1.4 billion, with the economic impact reverberating statewide.

Here’s the challenge: Many transit agencies don’t have the local funds to qualify for federal dollars. If you don’t have a local match, you are not in the conversation for federal grants. And the state has not increased transit funding since 1987; it has remained around $6 million annually, and it is distributed among 27 transit agencies.

Some employers are addressing the issue. Transit agencies often work specifically with employers to get employees to work.

For example, Pee Dee Regional Transit Authority works with Harbor Freight to transport its employees to their jobs, and Harbor Freight subsidizes the service. This helps Harbor Freight with its workforce needs and helps a rural area secure needed economic and workforce development.

Transportation can take the form of cars, bicycles, walking, trolleys, buses, trains, vanpools and many others.

Transportation is also unique to each community. What will work in Myrtle Beach might not help other parts of Horry County. And a lack of density is a challenge across much of South Carolina.

That makes it all the more important for those working in public transit to be at the table and engaging in conversations, so we can help provide solutions. Coast RTA is experimenting with vanpool in Horry and Georgetown counties.

Traditionally a program used in big cities, vanpool allows employers to identify seven to 12 employees who live relatively close together to drive themselves to work using a publicly subsidized vehicle. For the cost of putting one full-size bus into service for one year, which is about $300,000, a transit system can subsidize 45 vanpools for a year.

That provides more geographic coverage and preserves resources, such as hard-to-find drivers, for higher ridership areas. The program is expected to start later this spring.

The Transportation Association of South Carolina represents all types of transit in South Carolina. Its members are working across the state to help find solutions to transportation problems for a broad section of people working, living, retiring and playing in our state.

However, agencies need more support, more champions and, yes, more funding, to really serve our citizens and visitors and play a vital role in continued economic growth.

Brian Piascik is general manager of Coast RTA and current president of the Transportation Association of South Carolina. He can be reached at bpiascik@ coastrta.com.