Staff Report
Published Nov. 17, 2008

During fiscal 2008, the Charleston Regional Development Alliance recruited 355 direct new jobs, the economic development group said Friday in releasing its annual report.

That is down from the 711 direct new jobs the public-private partnership announced the year before. Direct jobs are those announced by companies moving to or expanding in the region and don’t reflect additional jobs created as a result.

Wages for jobs recruited during the past year also are down. The average hourly wage for direct jobs announced in fiscal 2008 is $16.56, compared with $21.32 last year.

Wages are higher this year, at $17.28 per hour, for jobs within the five economic clusters the alliance targets. Those are advanced security, aerospace and aviation, automotive, biosciences and creative industries. Last year, jobs within the clusters paid an average of $25.28 per hour.

Of the 355 jobs announced in the past fiscal year, 320 were jobs in those five clusters, according to the annual report.

The annual report shows a declining proportion of private-sector funding for the alliance. In fiscal 2005, for example, private-sector funding made up 45% of the group’s budget. In the current fiscal year, private-sector contributions represent 34% of funding.

Alliance spokeswoman Karen Kuchenbecker said the group’s goal, as a public-private partnership, is for 50% of funding to come from the private sector and 50% from the public sector. Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties contribute the majority of the group’s public funding.

At its annual meeting Friday, where the report was distributed, Charleston Regional Development Alliance chairman Jim Bryan announced an upcoming campaign to raise money for economic development efforts in the region.

The alliance launches fundraising efforts every five years or so, Kuchenbecker said. Immediately after those efforts, private contributions go up, and they fall back down toward the end of the five-year cycle, she said.

The campaign is in the internal phase now, she said, and will be a more public effort in the beginning of 2009.