Today, South Carolina recorded its highest unemployment rate in more than a quarter century when we hit 10.4%.
Allendale and Marion counties now sport a somewhat unfathomable rate of 23.4% and 22.4% -- effectively one in four workers are unable to find a job.
Leading the way in this January's losses were 11,700 positions cut from retail trade, 8,500 from the government, and 6,000 from professional and business services. In all 42,800 jobs were lost.
On the upside, the state actually added 100 jobs in the information field -- but there are only 29,500 in that area.
Here are the unemployment rates by county -- the tri-county area is doing relatively "well" with an unemployment rate of 8.6%
| Allendale | 23.4 | 21.4 | 2.0 |
| Marion | 22.4 | 18.8 | 3.6 |
| Chester | 19.6 | 17.5 | 2.1 |
| Lancaster | 17.5 | 14.5 | 3.0 |
| Marlboro | 17.5 | 17.1 | 0.4 |
| McCormick | 17.3 | 14.2 | 3.1 |
| Union | 17.1 | 14.4 | 2.7 |
| Barnwell | 16.7 | 15.4 | 1.3 |
| Chesterfield | 16.7 | 12.9 | 3.8 |
| Bamberg | 16.5 | 15.3 | 1.2 |
| Pickens | 9.8 | 8.0 | 1.8 |
| Berkeley | 9.6 | 8.1 | 1.5 |
| Dorchester | 9.3 | 7.8 | 1.5 |
| Edgefield | 9.1 | 8.3 | 0.8 |
| Beaufort | 8.4 | 6.9 | 1.5 |
| Charleston | 7.9 | 6.9 | 1.0 |
| Lexington | 7.5 | 6.4 | 1.1 |
You can head over to the S.C. Employment Security Commission for more details in their press release.
