COLUMBIA (WACH) --  Governor Nikki Haley applauding the Department of Social Services for helping welfare recipients get off welfare and land a job Tuesday morning.

According to South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) Director Lillian Koller the goal was to get nearly ten thousand people into a job; that numberis closer now to 12,300.

Through DSS, a number of businesses have stepped in to hire those formerly on welfare.

Those companies include Goodwill, Wal-Mart, Lowes and Home Depot, just to name a few. 

“Now what we've done is we’ve given families confidence. We’ve given children working parents to look up to and we have given them an opportunity that otherwise was not there. [The] 12,298 people now have jobs, and our goal is to increase that number,” said Haley.

Koller says welfare recipients in South Carolina typically get jobs that pay better than minimum wage, averaging close to $9.00 an hour and some earn much more.