(A)(1) The department, with the advice and aid of its advisory councils and through its appropriate divisions, shall take appropriate steps to:

(a) reduce and prevent unemployment;

(b) encourage and assist in adopting practical methods of vocational training, retraining, and vocational guidance;

(c) investigate, recommend, advise, and assist in establishing and operating, by a municipality, county, school district, and the State, of reserves for public works to be used in times of business depression and unemployment;

(d) promote the reemployment of unemployed workers throughout the State in every other way that is feasible; and

(e) promote the joint electronic filing of Employer Unemployment Insurance Benefits Payments and Reports in conjunction with South Carolina Business One Stop to provide employment units a single point of contact for reporting and paying state taxes.

(2) While pursuing these goals, the department also shall carry on and publish the results of statistical surveys, investigations, and research studies.

(B) The department may require from an employing unit for the department's cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor or its successor agency the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics report to:

(1) assign industry codes to South Carolina employers under the ES-202 Covered Employment and Wages Program;

(2) collect employment information on multiple worksites for South Carolina employers under the ES-202 Covered Employment and Wages Program;

(3) collect monthly employment, hours, and earnings from South Carolina employers under the BLS-790 Current Employment Statistics Program;

(4) collect employment information from federal employers under the ES-202 Covered Employment and Wages Program; and

(5) collect occupational employment and wage information from South Carolina employers under the Occupational Employment Statistics Program.

(C) As used in this section, "employing unit" means an entity employing more than twenty individuals.

(D) The department must institute the following measures to the fullest extent possible under state and federal law:

(1) increase eligibility reviews and investigations as to violations of Sections 41-35-110 and 41-35-120 and enforce appropriate disqualifications and penalties;

(2) increase investigations of violations of Chapter 41, Title 41 and enforce appropriate penalties;

(3) increase investigations of violations of Article 3, Chapter 31, Title 41 and enforce appropriate penalties;

(4) keep detailed voting and attendance records at all department and appellate panel hearings and make them available to the General Assembly;

(5) keep detailed travel and expense records for department employees and appellate panelists and make them available to the General Assembly;

(6) continue to work with the South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office to develop and continuously improve a customer service portal, to include increased interagency integration and data sharing, and keep the General Assembly regularly informed of its progress in upgrading its computer system through a possible multistate compact in cooperation with the federal government;

(7) report to the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Chairman of the Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee within five days of the effective date of this act as to the degree the department can accomplish or cannot accomplish each subitem in this subsection, and provide reasons why a subitem cannot be accomplished if the department cannot do so;

(8) report to the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Chairman of the Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee on the first day of each month in Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 on the progress of each request; and

(9) take all other actions necessary and prudent to effectively and efficiently manage the state's unemployment benefits program.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 68-62; 1952 Code Section 68-62; 1942 Code Section 7035-91; 1936 (39) 1716; 1939 (41) 487; 1941 (42) 369; 2002 Act No. 203, Section 1, eff April 10, 2002; 2010 Act No. 146, Section 38, eff March 30, 2010.

Code Commissioner's Note

At the direction of the Code Commissioner, references in this section to the offices of the former State Budget and Control Board, Office of the Governor, or other agencies, were changed to reflect the transfer of them to the Department of Administration or other entities, pursuant to the directive of the South Carolina Restructuring Act, 2014 Act No. 121, Section 5(D)(1).

Pursuant to the directive to the Code Commissioner in 2018 Act No. 246, Section 10, "Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office" was substituted for all references to "Office of Research and Statistics of the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office".

Effect of Amendment

The 2002 amendment designated subsection (A), in subsection (A), inserted "statistical surveys," preceding "investigations and research studies"; and added subsections (B) and (C).

The 2010 amendment rewrote this section to require the department to take steps to stabilize employment in South Carolina, promote joint electronic filing requirements, and to report to and cooperate with various federal and state governmental entities.