Jobs & Economy in Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach's job market is genuinely, structurally tourism-dependent rather than a diversified metro economy: leisure and hospitality alone accounted for 26.7% of all metro-area nonfarm jobs in June 2026 (44,400 jobs, up 7.5% year-over-year), with a distinct, quantified $1.6 billion golf-tourism sub-economy layered on top and healthcare (9.6% of the workforce) as a real, separately growing sector.
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Learn moreHospitality Dominates the Local Labor Market -- A Real, Structural Fact
Leisure and hospitality accounted for 26.7% of all Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach metro nonfarm jobs in June 2026 (44,400 jobs), up 7.5% year-over-year and the highest June total in the SC Department of Employment and Workforce's data series. A separate city-level breakdown put hospitality at 27.4% of the Myrtle Beach workforce specifically, followed by retail (13.6%), healthcare/social assistance (9.6%), and construction (9.1%) -- no other single sector comes close. This is a genuinely different employment structure than most inland Tier A+ metros covered elsewhere in this project, worth stating plainly rather than softening.
2025's Real, Disclosed Tourism Softening
The area's tourism economy showed a real, current, and genuinely mixed picture in 2025: 18.2 million visitors spent $13.3 billion (up about 1% from $13.2 billion in 2024, total economic impact more than $26 billion with indirect effects), but hotel occupancy fell 3.3%, the Tourism Development Fee fell 4.4%, and the citywide accommodations tax fell 10.8% year-over-year -- attributed in coverage to broader economic conditions, unfavorable weather, and fewer Canadian visitors. This is a real, current softening in visitor volume and occupancy that a headline "$13.3 billion, up year-over-year" figure alone would obscure -- disclosed honestly here.
Golf: A Real, Quantified, Distinct Economic Pillar
Golf generated a cited $1.6 billion economic impact for the Myrtle Beach area in 2024, supporting 13,340 jobs and $482.9 million in wages/benefits across 78 courses (63 public facilities, 6 private clubs). An estimated 759,000 golfers traveled 50+ miles specifically to play the area's courses that year, playing up to 1.4 million rounds and directly spending $705.4 million, supporting 7,300 tourism-specific jobs -- a real, distinct pillar of the local economy separate from beach tourism generally, and a genuine part of Myrtle Beach's brand identity nationally.
Healthcare: A Real, Separately Growing Sector
At 9.6% of the workforce, healthcare and social assistance is a real, distinct, and separately growing sector rather than an afterthought to tourism -- anchored by Grand Strand Medical Center's Level 1 Adult Trauma Center designation and Tidelands Health's four-hospital, 70-plus-outpatient-location system in partnership with MUSC Health. See the healthcare topic page in the companion file for the full picture, including Conway Medical Center and McLeod Health.
A Genuinely Seasonal Wage Structure
Average summer-seasonal hourly pay was cited at $14.08 as of August 2026 -- a real, modest figure consistent with a hospitality-and-retail-dominated labor market. A separately surfaced "$105,293 average annual tourism pay" figure from the same source is deliberately NOT used here: it appears to reflect a job-posting-category mismatch (likely skewing toward management/corporate tourism roles rather than front-line seasonal jobs) rather than a genuine, reconcilable data point, since a full-time-equivalent wage at $14.08/hour works out to roughly $29,300/year -- an order of magnitude below that figure. Higher-education and technical-training institutions (Horry-Georgetown Technical College, more than 11,000 students, a cited $503.8 million annual regional economic impact; Coastal Carolina University in nearby Conway, a $565.8 million statewide impact) support real workforce development beyond entry-level seasonal roles, particularly in Allied Health.
Key takeaways
- Leisure and hospitality alone accounted for 26.7% of metro nonfarm jobs in June 2026 (44,400 jobs, up 7.5% YoY) -- a genuinely structural, not incidental, tourism-dependent job market, distinct from a diversified metro economy.
- 2025 showed a real, disclosed tourism softening even as total visitor spending rose modestly: hotel occupancy down 3.3%, the Tourism Development Fee down 4.4%, and the accommodations tax down 10.8% year-over-year.
- Golf is a real, quantified, distinct $1.6 billion economic pillar (13,340 jobs, 78 courses) separate from broader beach tourism.
- Healthcare/social assistance (9.6% of the workforce) is a real, separately growing sector, anchored by Grand Strand Medical Center's Level 1 trauma designation and Tidelands Health's four-hospital system with MUSC Health.
- Average summer-seasonal pay is a real, modest $14.08/hour (August 2026) -- a separately surfaced "$105,293 average tourism pay" figure is deliberately not used here as it appears to reflect a job-category mismatch rather than genuine front-line seasonal wages.
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