Intern – Production

South Carolina's factory boom is outrunning its Workforce - and the 2026 numbers prove it. By Chris Urban, Founder, Forged Path Automation South Carolina keeps announcing production capacity faster than its factories can add people. Redwood Materials opened the first phase of its $3.5 billion Berkeley County campus in December 2025 - still the largest economic development project in state history. First Solar committed $330 million to a Gaffney plant scheduled to begin commercial operations in the second half of this year. Scout Motors welded its first vehicle body in Blythewood in June, part of a $2 billion build with another $300 million going into an on-site supplier park. The payroll data has not followed. South Carolina manufacturing employment stood at 262,600 jobs in June 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - up just 0.2 percent over twelve months. Total nonfarm employment grew 0.8 percent across the same period, and construction climbed 2.7 percent. The sector attracting the state's largest capital commitments is the one adding almost no headcount. The shortage isn't where most people think. It is tempting to read that as an applicant problem. It isn't, at least not at the entry level. When Scout Motors opened recruiting for its Blythewood production center, roughly 17,000 people signed up to express interest. Applicants show up. The bind is replacement. State labor market data puts one-year hiring demand across South Carolina manufacturing near 27,900 positions against projected net growth of only about 1,600 jobs. Run that arithmetic and roughly sixteen of every seventeen openings exist because someone retired or moved into a different occupation entirely. Production occupations tell the same story more sharply: about 20,300 openings a year, of which fewer than 1,000 represent real growth. The squeeze is worst in precision work, which is part of why South Carolina's aerospace and defense suppliers are feeling it first. Skilled finishing is the hardest seat to refill. Not all of that churn hurts equally. Assembly and material-handling roles can be trained in weeks, which is exactly what programs like readySC are built to do - Scout's $25 million on-site training center is a good example of the state doing that well. Finishing, deburring, blending, and surface prep are a different problem. A capable finisher working turbine hardware or an aerospace bracket carries years of accumulated judgment about pressure, angle, dwell, and when a surface is actually right. None of that lives in a work instruction. When that person retires, the process walks out with them, and the replacement produces parts that pass inspection while sitting somewhere else entirely inside the tolerance band. That variability is the quiet cost. It surfaces as rework, as scrap, and eventually as a customer capability study that looks worse than last year's. Pay increases haven't closed it. Manufacturing already pays a real premium here. Average annual wages in the sector run about $78,500, against roughly $62,600 across all South Carolina industries. Plants in the same county bid against each other for the same welders, machinists, and finishers, and every new announcement raises the bid. Tier 2 and Tier 3 shops absorb the worst of it. A 60-person operation in Spartanburg or Anderson County cannot outspend an OEM twenty minutes down I-85, and it cannot absorb the quality swings that come with a revolving door on the finishing bench. That same math is now driving decisions across the Upstate's power-generation build-out, where order books run years deep and a missed slot cannot be recovered. The argument is capacity now, not cost. Manufacturers have started treating skilled labor as a fixed input rather than a variable one. If the people are not available at any price, output has to come from somewhere else - tighter process control, fewer rejects, less rework, and cells that hold specification regardless of who is on shift. That has changed how automation gets justified in this state. Five years ago the pitch was cost: replace labor, save money. In 2026 it is capacity. Manufacturers automate the operations they cannot reliably staff so the people they do have move to work that genuinely requires judgment. Production occupations remain South Carolina's most concentrated occupational group relative to the national average, at roughly 175,700 workers, according to South Carolina's Labor Market Information office. Manufacturing contributed about $46.2 billion to state GDP in 2024, second only to real estate. That concentration is the state's advantage and its exposure at the same time. The manufacturers who come out of this decade in good shape will be the ones who stopped waiting for the labor market to loosen and started engineering the variation out of the processes they can no longer count on staffing. Forged Path Automation. Forged Path Automation designs, builds, programs, and supports turnkey robotic cells for manufacturers across aerospace, automotive, turbine, MRO, and general industrial sectors - with one team accountable from process engineering through long-term support. Its Services Include: * Robotic Finishing Automation - Programmable cells for polishing, buffing, deburring, and sanding * Custom Robotic Tooling and Fixture Design - Purpose-built EOAT and fixtures validated in real production conditions Have roles you can't refill? Contact Forged Path Automation to talk through which operations on your floor are candidates for automation - or visit its working demo job shop in Landrum, South Carolina. Works cited. "South Carolina Economy at a Glance." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, www.bls.gov/eag/eag.sc.htm. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026. "Economic Overview: South Carolina." South Carolina Labor Market Information, S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce, lmi.sc.gov/_docs/Regional-Profiles/EconomicOverviewReports/SouthCarolina.pdf. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026. Chris Urban is the Founder of Forged Path Automation. His 26+ year manufacturing career spans from an international manufacturing specialist trained in Zurich, Switzerland, to corporate President and business owner. Before launching Forged Path Automation (FPA), Chris scaled an industrial gas turbine business unit from its infancy to $50M in value, directed the zero-downtime relocation of 100+ industrial machines to a 150,000 sq. ft. Center of Excellence, and led US operations for a $2.3B global firm. Today, Chris leverages his deep technical roots and an MBA to engineer turnkey robotic finishing cells that deliver total production stability and clear ROI for high-mix manufacturers. Chris holds an advanced background in both the technical and financial sides of manufacturing, combining studies in Applied Science with a Master of Business Administration. Connect with Chris on LinkedIn to talk shop or discuss your floor's ROI.

American made: Volkswagen could bring A Daily Car Blog-built pickup to America by 2030. By Carlos Peña, August 10, 2026 Volkswagen may be planning a major push into one of America's most lucrative vehicle segments: the pickup truck. According to industry rumours, the Volkswagen Group is considering a US-made pickup by 2030 as part of a broader strategy to revive its struggling American operations. The rumours are based on anonymous sources, however, and Volkswagen has declined to comment, so the plan should be treated cautiously. The logic behind such a move is clear. Pickups and large SUVs dominate the American market, yet Volkswagen has largely avoided both segments. With US pickup sales approaching $200 billion in 2026, even a relatively small share could represent a significant opportunity. There are several ways Volkswagen could approach the idea. The simplest would be to build the Amarok in America, although that would hardly represent a bold new direction. Another possibility would involve Scout, Volkswagen Group's upcoming off-road-focused brand. Scout is already developing electric and range-extended pickup trucks and SUVs in Michigan for production in South Carolina from 2028. However, Volkswagen could risk competing with its own Scout brand if it developed a similar truck. A more intriguing possibility would be a smaller, affordable electric pickup. With vehicles such as Slate Auto's roughly $25,000 electric truck and Ford's forthcoming Fathom targeting the lower end of the market, Volkswagen could see an opportunity to make electric pickups more accessible. The company could potentially use its existing MEB electric platform, or even license Ford's new Universal Electric Vehicle architecture, which was designed specifically to reduce EV costs. Nothing has been finalized, and crucial questions remain over price, size, powertrain and production. Nevertheless, a relatively inexpensive US-built electric pickup could give Volkswagen a distinctive route back into the American market - and perhaps become one of its most important new products by the end of the decade.

Scout hires county councilman Derrek Pugh. * By Barbara Ball * / * August 6, 2026 BLYTHEWOOD - Richland County Council Vice Chair Derrek Pugh, who represents portions of Blythewood, was hired by Scout Motors in June as the company's South Carolina Senior Community Engagement Specialist, a high-profile position that will serve as the automaker's primary liaison with communities across the state. Pugh announced his new position in a Facebook post last week, saying he is "thrilled" to join the Scout Motors team. "I'm thrilled to announce that I have joined the team at Scout Motors as the South Carolina Senior Community Engagement Specialist!" Pugh wrote. "In this role, I'll be leading efforts to create strong connections between Scout Motors and the wonderful communities across South Carolina. I can't wait to collaborate, engage, and make a positive impact together. "Stay tuned for updates on how we'll be working together to support our local communities! This opportunity is an absolute blessing to live and work in the same community." Pugh replaces Punam Patel, who held the post for two years before leaving the company earlier this year. The appointment comes as Scout Motors continues construction of its $2 billion electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Blythewood, a project that has received significant support from Richland County Council of which Pugh has been a member since 2020. In response to a request from The Voice, Scout Motors issued the following statement: "Scout Motors conducted an extensive and thoughtful search to find the right person to represent us in the local community," a Scout Motors spokesperson said. "Derrek Pugh has called Blythewood home for more than 20 years. His knowledge of the local issues and passion for South Carolina, particularly the Midlands, and vast experience as a community organizer for various organizations is what made him stand out during our hiring process. We look forward to having Derrek represent Scout Motors as we continue to grow and make a lasting, positive impact." Pugh is serving his second term on Richland County Council and was recently named chair of the I-77 Alliance, an economic development organization serving the I-77 corridor. Pugh earned a bachelor's degree from Benedict College and a master's degree from Webster University. Prior to being elected to Richland County Council, he served stints on Blythewood's Board of Zoning Appeals and Planning Commission. Pugh was quoted recently in an area media outlet as saying, "I am fully committed to maintaining the highest standards of transparency, ethics, and accountability. I will strictly follow all appropriate compliance measures, disclosures, and oversight requirements." Earlier this year, Pugh was cleared by the South Carolina Ethics Commission following a six-month investigation into allegations involving his failure to pay more than $8,000 in rental fees for parties for his family members at the Manor, the Town of Blythewood's event venue. While the complaint was ultimately dismissed, Ethics Commission Chairman F. Xavier Starkes wrote, "the facts of this case are troubling," adding that "the current scenario, at the very least, has an appearance of impropriety." The investigation stemmed from a complaint filed by a Town official after The Voice reported that Pugh had reserved the Manor for two family events in 2025 without paying the required reservation fees. According to Manor records obtained through the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, the rental charges for the two events totaled $8,200. Records indicate the reservations were entered as "No pay, per Mayor" and "per Mayor." The Ethics Commission investigated whether Pugh, a county government official, had violated the South Carolina Ethics Government Accountability and Campaign Reform Act by accepting free use of a government-owned facility. In the January 2026 dismissal order, Starkes concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove Pugh received the economic benefit as the result of action taken in his official capacity as a county councilman, but that it resulted from his close friendship with Blythewood Mayor Sloan Griffin. According to the commission's findings, Mayor Sloan Griffin denied directing Manor staff to waive Pugh's rental fees despite staff notations indicating otherwise. The commission also found that after The Voice reported that Pugh failed to pay the rental fees, he negotiated the $8,200 fees down to $1,500, of which $500 was a refundable security deposit, according to reservation records. "I appreciate the Ethics Commission looking into this," said Blythewood Town Councilman Donald Brock, who filed the complaint. "I respect their decision to dismiss, but it does give me pause that it appears to be dismissed on a technicality. If they considered all facts and reached the conclusion that the Ethics Act wasn't violated, so be it. The bigger takeaway is whether Mr. Pugh has paid the remaining $7,200 he owes to the citizens of Blythewood." Pugh has not yet responded to The Voice's request for comment concerning any outstanding fees.