News - Local/State

Saturday, Sep. 20, 2008

State jobless rate jumps to highest mark in 15 years

Layoffs in manufacturing and construction pushed South Carolina's unemployment rate to a 15-year high in August, state employment officials said Friday.

South Carolina's jobless rate was 7.6 percent in August -- fifth-highest in the U.S. and up from 7 percent in July, which had seen an unprecedented 0.9 percent increase from the month before, according to the Employment Security Commission.

York County's jobless rate jumped to 7.9 percent in August -- up more than half a percentage point from July and up by 2.5 percentage points more than a year ago, when only 5.4 percent of the county's labor force was out of work.

That translates to almost 8,500 county residents looking for work -- up from about 5,600 a year ago.

York County had the ninth-lowest unemployment rate in the state in August 2007; a year later, the county has the 15th-lowest rate.

"We're kind of following what's going on at the national level," said Sam McClary, a labor market analyst with the S.C. Employment Security Commission.

Employment in construction and manufacturing have continued to decline, he said, and all areas of the state have experienced a seasonal decline in employment in the tourism and hospitality industries -- though that effect might be more profound in coastal areas.

Chester and Lancaster counties remained among the 10 S.C. counties with the highest unemployment rates. Chester's 12.8 percent rate in August was fifth-highest in the state, up from 12.1 percent in July. Lancaster's 12.2 percent rate was 10th-highest in the state, up from 11.3 percent in July.

The national unemployment rate increased to 6.1 percent from 5.7 percent in August. South Carolina's rate was lower than just four states -- Michigan (8.9 percent), Rhode Island (8.5), California and Mississippi (both 7.7), according to the U.S. Labor Department.

The higher rate in South Carolina came despite an increase of 23,000 jobs from July. But total nonagricultural employment at 1.97 million was down in August by 3,800 jobs from a year ago.

In a typical year, the state will add about 50,000 jobs, which equals about 2 percent job growth year-to-year, economists said.

"We might actually get that this year, eventually," College of Charleston economics professor Frank Hefner said. "But it doesn't look good that the August numbers from this year are lower than the August numbers from last year.

"All in all, it looks like we've taken a hit in the real economy in South Carolina."

The biggest hit came in construction jobs, which were down 17,000 in August 2008 from a year earlier. Manufacturing continued its slide, losing 7,000 jobs in the year-to-year period. Those losses wiped out increases in government (10,400) and tourism-related jobs (7,600) from August 2007.

Inge Lewis, 55, of Columbia has been looking for work since April 2007. Her field of work is publishing and editing, part of the information industry that has seen jobs cut by 700 since August 2007.

"Your job sort of is you, sort of defines you and now without a job and without anybody wanting to hire you, you sort of feel like worthless," Lewis said. "If you didn't have another sort of belief in yourself, it would be pretty devastating to just wait day in and day out wondering is there anybody out there who is willing to hire you."

Gov. Mark Sanford's office said in a statement Friday that it still considers the unemployment rate an imperfect measure of how the economy is doing, but added, "that South Carolina isn't immune to what's going on with respect to the national economy."

Those issues include a downward spiral in the housing industry brought on by record numbers of mortgage foreclosures and a growing instability in the financial sector, including the government bailout of failing insurance, banking and brokerage concerns.

Governor's spokesman Joel Sawyer pointed out that the state has added 145,000 jobs since 2003, but has a higher unemployment rate than states that have had less job growth or even job loss over the past five years.

"South Carolina has consistently seen record growth in its labor force over the past few years," Sawyer said in his e-mail. "One could certainly argue that wouldn't be happening without job opportunities in the state."