S.C. Unemployment Rate is 9.5% in December

With momentum from ongoing layoffs and an expanding labor force, South Carolina’s unemployment rate continued to climb in December reaching 9.5%, the State Employment Security Commission reported today. This is more than a full percentage point above November’s rate of 8.4%, and the highest rate since January 1983. The state’s labor force grew nearly 14,300 in December to 2,184,613. The number of unemployed grew almost 25,600 to 207,171, the highest level on record. The national unemployment rate also rose sharply, climbing from 6.7% in November to 7.2% in December.

The number of jobs in the state plummeted 22,000 in December to 1,906,900. This is the largest December job loss on record. Leading the downturn was Professional and Business Services (-8,500), followed by Leisure and Hospitality (-6,300), Manufacturing (-2,100), and Construction (-1,400). Construction has posted losses for the last 14 consecutive months, while Manufacturing has posted nine consecutive months of job losses. The overall job count dropped to 54,100 below the previous year’s level.

Roosevelt T. Halley, Executive Director of the Commission, said “the unemployment and job count data for 2008 will be revised over the next month through the annual benchmarking process mandated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The updated data series will be released along with the January 2009 estimates.”

# 21 Darlington County December 2008 Rate = 11.7%, an increase of 1.5 percentage points.