USC creates almost 53,000 jobs across South Carolina
The entire University of South Carolina system contributed a total of $4.1 billion to the state of South Carolina, according to research conducted by the Darla Moore School of Business.
Joseph Von Nessen, a research economist in USC’s division of research, prepared the study he conducted along with Doug Woodward, which also showed USC has created approximately 52,872 jobs.
Von Nessen said the goal of the study is to show USC’s impact on state and local communities and emphasize the importance of higher education.
The largest impact USC has, according to Von Nessen, is the alumni impact, which happens when there is an increase in demand for goods and services because having college degrees causes household incomes to be higher. About 155,000 alumni live in South Carolina, and the total alumni impact for the USC system was $1.3 billion.
“This looks exclusively at graduates who remain in the state and are working in South Carolina and spend their dollars and their resources here,” Von Nessen said.
While the costs associated with education have steadily increased, students may question the value of going to college. But Von Nessen said there’s definitely a positive return to a college degree.
“When you look at it from a student’s perspective as to whether I should go to college or not, I think the benefits, in terms of a lifetime of better job opportunities and better earning potential, [are] very clear,” Von Nessen said.
The university also contributed $1.6 billion in spillover effects, which occur when the population is educated and therefore more productive and earning higher wages.
“Educating students and giving them the opportunity to earn that wage premium has an impact because those wages are then spent in the local community,” Von Nessen said.
The university also contributed $1.2 billion in expenditure effects, which are expenses that USC paid for that weren’t funded by the state. The main Columbia campus had the largest financial impact of almost $3.4 billion and supporting 43,688 jobs.
The second largest contributing campus was USC Upstate, which totalled $388.5 million and has 4,130 jobs.
“The economic benefits of higher education in South Carolina are far reaching for both individual citizens and for the state as a whole,” the study said.