WARN Act Layoffs in Horry County, South Carolina

In-Depth Analysis: Layoffs in Horry County, South Carolina

# Economic Analysis: The Layoff Landscape in Horry County, South Carolina

Overview: Scale and Significance of Workforce Reductions

Horry County has experienced significant labor market disruption over the past decade, with 26 WARN Act notices displacing 1,326 workers since 2012. This figure represents a substantial concentration of layoffs in a single South Carolina county, particularly when contextualized against the state's current labor market conditions. With South Carolina's unemployment rate standing at 5.0% as of February 2026—above the national rate of 4.3%—and insured unemployment at 0.66%, Horry County's layoff activity reflects both sector-specific vulnerabilities and broader economic pressures affecting the region.

The county's WARN notice activity reveals a pattern of episodic but significant disruption rather than steady attrition. The clustering of notices around 2012 and 2020 suggests that Horry County's workforce has been particularly vulnerable to cyclical downturns and industry-specific shocks. The recent uptick in 2024 and 2025, with two notices filed in each year, indicates ongoing labor market stress even as national unemployment has declined substantially year-over-year.

Dominant Employers and the Hospitality-Driven Layoff Crisis

The layoff landscape in Horry County is dominated by hospitality, food service, and entertainment enterprises that form the backbone of the region's tourism-dependent economy. VSE Myrtle Beach, LLC Sheraton Broadway Plantation leads the list with two WARN notices displacing 136 workers combined, anchoring a pattern in which accommodation and food service companies account for nine of the county's 26 total notices.

Beyond the Sheraton, several major hospitality and leisure employers have filed WARN notices indicating significant workforce reductions. Startek, a customer service and business process outsourcing firm, filed a single notice affecting 161 workers—the largest single-employer layoff event in the dataset. Aquasino, likely referring to aquatic or entertainment attractions common to the Myrtle Beach area, displaced 150 workers. Medieval Times Medieval Knights, a dinner theater attraction, affected 131 workers, while Hilton Grand Vacations reduced its workforce by 112 employees. Kingston Resorts and Hard Rock Cafe collectively affected nearly 180 workers across two notices.

These figures underscore a critical vulnerability in Horry County's economic base: dependence on tourism-driven employment in seasonal, low-wage service positions with minimal job security. The concentration of layoffs among accommodation, food service, and entertainment employers suggests that downturns in visitor traffic, changes in consumer spending patterns, or operational restructuring within the hospitality sector cascade rapidly through the county's labor market. The Startek layoff is particularly notable given that it represents a white-collar business process outsourcing operation—indicating that even higher-value service employment has been subject to displacement.

Healthcare employers, while representing a smaller share of total layoffs, also appear vulnerable. Sodexo, operating under contract with HCA Grand Strand Medical, displaced 85 workers, and BCBS (Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina) affected 111 employees. These represent upstream disruptions in healthcare administration and food service rather than clinical reductions, suggesting that even essential sector employment faces contraction.

Industry Composition: The Tourism Trap

The industry breakdown reveals Horry County's structural economic vulnerability. Accommodation and food service accounts for nine notices—more than one-third of all WARN filings—affecting hundreds of workers in roles typically characterized by low wages, seasonal employment, and limited benefits. This concentration exceeds the national average exposure to hospitality layoffs and reflects Myrtle Beach's identity as a major beach tourism destination.

Manufacturing represents the second-largest source of layoff notices with five filings, though these affected fewer total workers than the hospitality sector's episodic large reductions. Healthcare and information technology each generated two notices, while finance and insurance, transportation, arts and entertainment, and construction contributed one notice each.

The absence of large-scale manufacturing or technology layoffs suggests that Horry County lacks diversification into sectors that typically command higher wages and more stable employment. The county's economy remains oriented toward leisure and hospitality rather than knowledge work, advanced manufacturing, or technology services. This contrasts sharply with the H-1B visa data for South Carolina at large, which shows substantial petitions for computer systems analysts, software developers, and engineers at major firms like Capgemini America and Wipro Limited—employers and occupations largely absent from Horry County's economic footprint.

Geographic Concentration: Myrtle Beach's Outsized Vulnerability

The geographic distribution of WARN notices within Horry County is heavily concentrated in Myrtle Beach, which accounts for 18 of the 26 total notices and the overwhelming majority of affected workers. This concentration reflects the city's role as the county's economic engine and primary tourism draw. The remaining notices scatter across smaller municipalities: Conway with three notices, Little River with two, and single notices in Surfside, Loris, and North Myrtle Beach.

This geographic pattern reveals that economic disruption in Horry County is fundamentally tied to the health of Myrtle Beach's tourism and hospitality sector. Any shock affecting visitor numbers, seasonal patterns, or tourism spending reverberates through the city's large workforce of hospitality employees and support service workers. The relative absence of notices in surrounding municipalities suggests less diversified economic activity in these areas and potentially greater dependence on Myrtle Beach as a regional employment hub.

Historical Patterns: The 2012 and 2020 Shock Periods

Horry County's WARN notice history reveals two distinct shock periods that bracket the decade: 2012 accounted for six notices, and 2020 saw 11 notices—73 percent of all activity during the 2012-2022 period. The 2012 clustering likely reflects the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession, with recovery-era restructuring in hospitality and service sectors. The 2020 concentration clearly corresponds to the COVID-19 pandemic and the initial lockdown period, when hospitality, food service, and entertainment venues faced mandatory closures or severe capacity restrictions.

The relative quietness of the 2018-2019 period and subsequent years (with only three notices in 2021 and one in 2022) suggests that the pandemic-driven layoff shock was front-loaded rather than sustained. However, the reappearance of two notices in 2024 and two in 2025 indicates that labor market stress has not fully dissipated. These recent notices may reflect ongoing operational adjustments, technology-driven displacement in customer service roles, or capacity decisions related to slower tourism recovery.

Local Economic Impact: Cascading Effects on Household Income and Community Stability

The displacement of 1,326 workers over the past thirteen years carries substantial implications for household incomes, community stability, and tax revenues in Horry County. Given that most WARN-affected positions are in hospitality and food service—sectors with median wages significantly below county and state averages—these layoffs disproportionately impact lower-income households with limited financial buffers. Workers in accommodation and food service typically earn $30,000-$35,000 annually, meaning that a layoff of 136 workers at a single hospitality venue represents roughly $4.6 million in annual household income displacement.

The concentration of layoffs in Myrtle Beach creates localized labor market saturation during displacement events, as hundreds of hospitality workers compete simultaneously for replacement employment in a sector with seasonal hiring volatility. The absence of large-scale alternative employers in adjacent sectors means that displaced workers often face underemployment, out-of-pocket retraining costs, or geographic relocation. The relatively low rate of H-1B hiring in Horry County—in contrast to Clemson University, Capgemini, and other major employers concentrated in upstate South Carolina—indicates limited opportunity for workforce upgrading through technology-intensive job creation.

The county's insured unemployment rate of 0.66% for South Carolina as a whole masks potential localized stress in Horry County, where seasonal tourism employment patterns complicate reliable measurement of joblessness. Workers cycling between seasonal hospitality positions and brief periods of unemployment may not consistently file claims, rendering traditional unemployment statistics less revealing than WARN notice data for understanding true labor market slack.

Sector-Specific Vulnerabilities and Structural Economic Challenges

Horry County's layoff pattern reflects fundamental structural vulnerabilities in a tourism-dependent economy with limited diversification. The absence of major corporate headquarters, substantial manufacturing operations, or technology sector employers means that the county's economic base remains narrowly dependent on visitor spending and hospitality employment. This creates cyclical vulnerability to tourism downturns, seasonal fluctuations, and industry-wide operational changes.

The recent WARN notices in 2024-2025, occurring amid the national labor market tightening and rising interest rates that have dampened discretionary travel spending, suggest that tourism-driven layoffs remain an ongoing risk. Unlike counties with diversified employment bases anchored by stable manufacturing, healthcare systems, or technology firms, Horry County lacks the employment multipliers that would support local economic resilience during service sector contractions.

The data yields no evidence of H-1B petitions filed by major Horry County employers, despite substantial H-1B activity among South Carolina employers in technology, engineering, and healthcare roles. This absence further underscores the county's disconnect from higher-wage, knowledge-intensive employment clusters and suggests limited local capacity for occupational diversification or wage growth beyond the hospitality sector's wage ceiling.

Horry County stands at a crossroads: continued dependence on seasonal, low-wage tourism employment perpetuates vulnerability to demand shocks and cyclical layoffs, while developing alternative economic sectors requires substantial workforce development investment, infrastructure upgrades, and strategic recruitment of non-tourism employers. The WARN notice data documents not merely workforce reductions but the fundamental economic constraints that define the county's labor market trajectory.