South Carolina’s Unemployment Up in Double Digits at 10.4%
The South Carolina Employment Security Commission press release today noted that unemployment reached the highest levels since April 1983 when levels were 10.7%.
Allendale County has the dubious honor of having the highest statewide rates at 23.4% (up 2 from December 2008) while 11 counties kept their rates under 10%. Lexington County had the lowest unemployment rate in the state with 7.5%.
Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that national unemployment rate rose from 7.2 percent in December to 7.6 percent in January and was 2.7 percentage points higher than a year earlier.
-RFW
Allendale County’s 23.4% unemployment rate is horrifying enough, but when you consider that reported rate is probably the U3 figure that doesn’t include long term unemployed, it gets worse. It’s possible that a third of the county’s workers are without jobs.
Is this a preview of what the rest of the country will face?