Image by Flickr user dgeezerImage by unemployment.jpg
Today, South Carolina reported an unemployment rate of 11% -- the highest since March 1983.
Read more stories on this subject in our unemployment topic page.Allendale and Marion counties continue to sport somewhat unfathomably high rates of 23.4% and 21.9% -- effectively more than one in five workers in those counties are unable to find a job.
Leading the way in losses were 5,400 positions cut in manufacturing, but several areas showed marked gains -- professional/business services, education/health services, hospitality, and the highest of the four: government jobs.
Here are the unemployment rates by county — the tri-county area is doing relatively “well” with an unemployment rate of 9.1% -- up 0.5% points from last month.
| Allendale | 23.4 | 23.2 | 0.2 | |
| Marion | 21.9 | 22.1 | -0.2 | |
| Chester | 20.8 | 19.5 | 1.3 | |
| Marlboro | 19.7 | 19.5 | 0.2 | |
| Union | 19.6 | 16.9 | 2.7 | |
| Kershaw | 10.9 | 10.3 | 0.6 | |
| Jasper | 10.5 | 10.1 | 0.4 | |
| Berkeley | 10.3 | 9.5 | 0.8 | |
| Dorchester | 9.8 | 9.2 | 0.6 | |
| Pickens | 9.8 | 9.7 | 0.1 | |
| Aiken | 9.5 | 8.4 | 1.1 | |
| Greenville | 9.5 | 8.8 | 0.7 | |
| Saluda | 9.5 | 8.6 | 0.9 | |
| Beaufort | 8.6 | 8.3 | 0.3 | |
| Richland | 8.6 | 8.4 | 0.2 | |
| Charleston | 8.3 | 7.9 | 0.4 | |
| Lexington | 7.9 | 7.4 | 0.5 |
You can head over to the S.C. Employment Security Commission for more details in their press release.
