SC business briefly

New area code coming to S.C.

Residents in eastern South Carolina will get a new area code next week. But unlike in the past, when authorities created a separate geographic area for new area codes, the 854 code will simply be woven into the 843 district. That means a new resident may have a separate area code from his next-door neighbor. It also means callers within the 854-843 area code must punch 10 numbers instead of seven for all calls. For now, the 803 zone in the Midlands and the 864 zone in the western part of South Carolina will have just one area code.

Also ...

▪ Two iconic Grand Strand restaurants and a popular tourist location closed for good this week. Harold’s on the Ocean in North Myrtle Beach, Planet Hollywood in Myrtle Beach and MagiQuest at Broadway at the Beach all closed for business Monday.

▪ A Daufuskie Island company has been ordered to pay a $35,000 fine for failing to permanently close underground storage tanks and pay fees on those tanks at an island boat landing, according to records from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. The $35,350 fine was levied against Daufuskie Embarkment LLC on July 13 for tanks that used to store gasoline and diesel fuel at a boat landing on Melrose Landing Road, according to records from a DHEC meeting agenda scheduled for Thursday.

▪ Job openings in the U.S. surged to a record in July as hiring cooled, a sign employers are having a hard time finding qualified workers. The number of positions waiting to be filled jumped by 430,000, the biggest gain since April 2010, to 5.75 million, a Labor Department report showed Wednesday.