Mike Daniels is a research and planning administrator with the South Carolina Employment Security Commission. He gathers and analyzes data to determine trends in the South Carolina economy and provide useful information to the public and media each month. As supervisor of special research, he coordinates multiple projects including producing monthly press releases and economic indicators. Daniels was honored nationally for his accurate job growth forecasting and enjoys analyzing numbers to understand what they really mean. He works to assemble the pieces of the economic puzzle in South Carolina.

1. ALUM FEATURE
Assembling the Pieces of the S.C. Economic Puzzle
Each month when the news media report on the previous
month’s unemployment rate in South Carolina, or the number
of new jobs created, or the inflation rate, you can thank James
M. “Mike” Daniels II (BS ’88) for the useful information.
Daniels, 37, an award-winning research and planning
administrator with the South Carolina Employment Security
Commission in Columbia, gathers and sifts though mounds of
data each day to determine what’s really happening with the Growing up in Columbia,
South Carolina economy. “People turn to us to know what’s Daniels began keeping a
going on,” he says. personal diary as a teenager.
As supervisor of special research for the Commission’s “It includes what I’d like to
Labor Market Information (LMI) Department, the Columbia accomplish in the next three
native coordinates multiple simultaneous projects, including months,” he says. He always
the production of monthly press releases and the monthly gravitated toward business,
state economic indicators. A graceful writer, he pens LMI’s and now uses the marketing
press releases himself and also puts together sophisticated skills he learned at the Moore School of Business when he
PowerPoint presentations that he takes on the road to explain gives presentations on the state’s economy to Rotary clubs and
state economic trends. other organizations. “Each time I give a presentation, I’m
Does he get bored always working with numbers? “No,” marketing our department,” he says.
he replies. “I really enjoy this because I always want to look An Employment Security Commission employee since
behind the numbers. I analyze data to try to figure out what 1989, the energetic Daniels has redesigned the
those numbers really mean in terms of trends, in terms of Commission’s monthly newsletter on labor
consumer confidence.” market trends, and also helped redesign and
Daniels is a gifted prognosticator. Last year, he was one update the Commission’s Web site
of three winners honored nationally for job growth forecast- (www.sces.org) to make available a larger
ing accuracy by the Bank One Economic Outlook Center in variety of data to the public.
the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State Univer- He reads newspapers and magazines
sity. His competitors for that award included such continuously to stay on top of economic
behemoths as General Motors, DuPont, Schwab and labor market news nationally,
Capital Markets, and the state of Georgia’s Dr. regionally, and statewide. “It’s
Donald Ratajczak, but Daniels came away with like putting together the
a plaque and $1,000 prize. pieces of a puzzle,” he
“I was very pleasantly surprised,” he says, says, explaining how he
adding wryly that his wife “helped me spend determines his numbers
the money.” and trends. “It’s a
Daniels is one of 25 economists in the fascinating job.”
nation who get out their crystal balls each — Jan K. Collins
quarter and make their guesses for the
National Consensus Forecast of Labor
Employment, Compensation, and Produc-
tivity, which is published in the Blue Chip
Job Growth Update—the only consensus
forecast of job growth in the nation. The
forecast was assembled three years ago to
provide key economic information to corpora-
tions, government, economic development Mike Daniels
agencies, and the public.
30 Moore Business / Spring 2004