THE WORKS Podcast
The Works podcast is hosted by William Floyd, the Executive Director of the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) and Chair of the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development (CCWD). The purpose of this podcast is to provide a platform for short, impactful conversations with CCWD partners, workforce leaders, industry experts, and public officials who help strengthen our state’s economy and labor force.
THE WORKS Podcast
Episode 11: Labor, Licensing and Regulation with Emily Farr
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In this episode, South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) Executive Director and Coordinating Council for Workforce Development (CCWD) Chair William Floyd welcomes Emily Farr, Director of the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (LLR), for an in-depth conversation about safety, licensure, and South Carolina’s workforce. Farr shares how LLR keeps our state safe, regulates countless professions, and supports career pathways that don’t require a two‑ or four‑year degree—opening doors to rewarding careers many South Carolinians may not know exist.
For additional information about career pathways, workforce programs, and employment resources across South Carolina, please visit https://findyourfuture.sc.gov
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Follow along to stay informed about opportunities supporting South Carolina’s current and future workforce.
Welcome to the Works Podcast. My name is William Floyd. I'm the Executive Director of the Department of Employment and Workforce, and I also chair the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development. Today's guest is Director Emily Farr. She leads the Department of Labor Licensing and Regulation, which does so much for our state, including licensing certain jobs. And some of those jobs are out there waiting for job seekers, and many don't require a two-year or four-year degree. So come and listen to Director Farr. Welcome, Director Emily Farr to the Works Podcast.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. It's great to be here.
SPEAKER_02Man, you picked a great day to be here. It's nice and cold outside. No, it's if only. If only, you know, it's it's great, famously hot here in Columbia, but uh we're fortunate to have you. We want to learn about you and the wonderful agency you lead and how it connects with the workforce as well as the coordinated council for workforce development. So here we go. Tell us about you, Emily.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, I am a lawyer by trade. Um, I actually was in private practice in Columbia, South Carolina for many years before I transitioned to state government and um went over to LLR. Um, I've loved it. I've been there 10 years now. Um, it's a great state agency that provides a lot of services to our state.
SPEAKER_02Let's talk a little bit about your agency, LLR or South Carolina Department of Labor Licensing Regulation. Tell us what it is and what its mission and all the rest. Sure.
SPEAKER_01So I often tell folks LLR isn't one of the biggest agencies, and it's not the agency that a lot of people even really realize what it does. But I would argue that LLR actually touches everybody in South Carolina every day because of how expansive all of our programs are. The mission of the agency is really just to make South Carolina a safe place to work and live. And that is what all of the programs underneath the agency umbrella strive toward. So we have three main divisions. Um, we have the division of state fire, which actually houses um one of the largest uh fire academies where we train all of the firefighters in our state. We've had people from many people from out of state, but even people out of the country that come there to train. Um, we have state-of-the-art props out there. We can burn all kinds of things out at that fire campus. And then we also have the state fire marshal's office, which is the regulatory side that folks may be more familiar with. And also Emergency Response Office, which is uh LLR actually leads firefighting and search and rescue statewide efforts whenever we have an emergency. So they're not just putting out fires. They're the ones who um, you know, are lowered down from a helicopter to rescue people out of swift water. They do swift water rescues and boats and structural collapse, things like that. But then we have our division of labor. Um division of labor houses the South Kana OSHA program, which is, you know, all about making the workplace safe. Um, we also handle all the other state labor laws, um, payment of wages and child labor. And then we have our division of professional and occupational licensing, um, which we affectionately call poll. Um, I think a lot of people are most familiar with poll when they think about LLR because most professions that require a license, you come to LLR to get that license. So poll actually is comprised of 43 different boards. Wow. Yes. So we have 43 different regulatory boards for each of the professions that are underneath the agency umbrella.
SPEAKER_02That is great to know. And uh in South Carolina we have over 800 uh occupations, and I bet there's some um of those occupations that your agency is responsible with regard to licensure that many people wouldn't know about them, but they're incredible job opportunities out there.
SPEAKER_01Right. There's definitely some opportunities of professions and occupations that the state requires you to get some licensure or certification for in order to perform in the state, but they don't require a college degree or a hire, you know, beyond college. And I think so many people don't realize that, that there's potential really lucrative career pathways, but there's so many other opportunities out there, I think, for students in particular to think about as they're, you know, considering how they're gonna enter the workforce.
SPEAKER_02Right. A lot of great opportunities out there for South Carolinians. I'm gonna throw you a curveball. Okay. You weren't always the director of a great state agency, and you weren't always a lawyer. What was your first job or one of the memorable first jobs?
SPEAKER_01Well, one of my first jobs actually was a metal distributor company here in Lexington, South Carolina, actually, right here in the Midlands. It was a summer job in between freshman and sophomore year in college. And um, you know, I was just the office clerk. I remember alphabetizing the files in the office, you know. Um, but then the other first jobs I had was I actually worked at LLR. Um, it's so interesting how life brings you back around. Never imagined my life would eventually bring me back there in this role, but it's it's you just never know where you're gonna end up in life, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02You really don't. So the coordinating council for workforce development has a pathways committee. And so we're talking about career pathways. You have the absolute greatest career pathway there.
SPEAKER_03You started at LLR as a file clerk and uh intern in the legal department.
SPEAKER_01I can't say that I had like a strategic plan on my pathway. Um, the one thing I say is you just you never know where you're gonna end up. You never want to burn bridges where you are because you never know when you're gonna end up needing to return. And all of the experiences you have build on each other to take you to that that next step.
SPEAKER_02It really is the time to do it as a young person, whether you're a teenager or in college. You know, those youth employment experiences help prepare you for the bigger experiences. So, in addition to running an agency, you're also a member of the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development, right? So you've been there for a couple, three years with once I joined, I think it was about the same time you joined. Tell me about uh your experience.
SPEAKER_01I've I've really enjoyed what the CCWD is is working toward doing, having employers, state government, leaders, um, nonprofit agencies, everybody in the same space to try to find better ways for communicating information to South Carolinians to improve the workforce. Right. When this legislation was first introduced, actually, I started to follow it because what I loved about it was the idea of the portal, um, of the website that a citizen could go to and quickly see what's available to them in South Carolina. And hey, this job pays about this much. And this is what it would take for me to be able to apply for it. It really appealed to me because of those jobs we were just talking about at LLR, where I just don't think people often are as familiar with the opportunities that really are out there.
SPEAKER_02Creating this platform, a virtual platform, so that no matter how old you are or wherever you are, as long as you connect to the internet and lots of different ways to do that, you know, students or not so young students could connect with some of those jobs and know that there's incredible opportunity down the road that they didn't even know about. We're really excited about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, some of those examples that we have at the agency are like building code officials, right? Um, there's actually lots of different code inspector levels that the building code council licenses, and they don't require a four-year college degree. You have to pass an exam from a nationally recognized code organization, but um that that doesn't require a college degree, but the state's really in need of building code officials. You don't think about that, but um, there's not this pipeline of folks coming into that career and they need it. Um, same with our um environmental certification board, do with wastewater operators and other um operators within that board. Again, a field that just don't see a lot of people, um young folks coming into that, or even I keep talking about students, but we're also talking about like veterans or you know, second career um people that might be looking for a change. And those are careers that can pay quite well.
SPEAKER_02Great possibilities out there. And I think through the Central Portal and other strategic projects, it's an opportunity to connect South Carolinians with those opportunities. Emily, I've learned so much more about LLR. For those who don't know about LLR, where should they go and how can they learn more about LLR as well as those jobs you were talking about?
SPEAKER_01Really, the best place would be to go to our website, which is LLR.sc.gov. Um, can go straight to any three of those divisions I mentioned or dig into all the different licenses. We also, of course, have our social media accounts. Can also look at those and see what we're up to.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you, Director Farr, for your time today and for what you and your agency do each and every day to help South Carolinians be safe.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to be here today.
SPEAKER_04To leave you with some helpful labor market information. Here's your LMI minute.
SPEAKER_00Hi, I'm Brandon Wilkerson, the Labor Market Analytics Director at Due. I'll be filling in for Dr. Brian Grady for this LMI minute, but fear not, you'll still get the most pertinent data from today's discussion that will help you better understand our workforce. Today you heard from Emily Farr, director at the South Carolina Department of Labor Licensing and Regulation, often referred to as LLR. Director Farr's agency plays a unique role in our job market since it certifies and licenses many of the workers to keep potential infrastructure and systems intact and running smoothly. Two key roles that were mentioned during the conversation were wastewater operators and building code inspectors, which would be water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators. You can see why that got shortened to wastewater operators, and construction and building inspectors. Now, with these titles in hand and using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Waste Statistics Program, I can see that there were 2,650 water and wastewater treatment plants and system operators in the state in 2025, earning $55,910 per year on average. I can also see using LMI's 10-year projections that we expect 247 openings each year for this role in South Carolina. Looking at these same elements for construction and building inspectors, I find 2,500 employed in the state with an average annual wage of $60,040. According to our 10-year projections, we expect 244 annual openings for the role. These and other occupations that require licensing and regulation can be found across a wide swath of industries, including healthcare, aviation, forestry, geology, real estate, energy, and more. These are crucial jobs, many of them well paying and in demand. In fact, LLR, as you probably could have guessed, handles the licensing for registered nurses, one of the largest and most in-demand occupations in South Carolina. In 2025, there were 49,750 registered nurses employed, earning an average annual wage of $87,670. We project 3,057 openings for this crawl each year in the next 10 years. That's your Alan Line Minute. Until next time, thanks for joining us.