Retirees in South Carolina spending like there’s no tomorrow!

Retirees are worth a whopping $29.6 billion annually for the state of South Carolina. This was just one finding of a recent study from the Smartstate Center of Tourism & Economic Development. The study, part-funded by the US Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, found that South Carolina is becoming more and more attractive to retirees, with the baby boomer population leading relocation from the Northeast and Midwest to warmer regions of the South. The study points out that the retiree economy is also associated with 333,521 jobs and nearly $11 billion in labor income. But this could be much higher if the state were to actively pursue retirees as an economic development strategy – just a one percent increase in in-migration retirees would result in an annual additional economic impact of $20.1 million, which would be associated with 227 jobs and $7.3 million in labor income. Among numerous recommendations, the SmartState team suggests that an ongoing coordinated marketing campaign be initiated to strengthen the state’s brand as a retiree destination, a campaign that could stress the warm welcome the state offers, and the cost of living advantages over rival states like Florida. The full report can be found by clicking HERE.