South Carolina's unemployment rate hit another record high in January as the level of jobless residents rose in all 46 counties.

Employers cut 27,700 positions throughout the month, including seasonal jobs in tourism and retail, as the jobless rate reached 12.6 percent, the state Employment Security Commission said Wednesday.

South Carolina's unemployed population -- a total of 273,455 residents -- is the biggest on record.

Compare that number with the data recorded several years ago and a grim picture emerges. That figure, for example, never topped 100,000 people in 2000. Throughout 2005, the number averaged 140,000.

"It gives us a sense of how many jobs the economy needs to create in order

to put a majority of people back to work," said economist Don Schunk of Coastal Carolina University. "More so than the unemployment rate, (that number) tells us how far we have to go before we return to some sense of normalcy."

Read it all from the front page of yesterday's local paper.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • * South Carolina

1. Sidney wrote: Why is South Carolina doing worse than California in unemployment? March 12, 3:53 pm | [comment link]

2. Branford wrote: California’s January unemployment number is 13.2% (from here). March 12, 6:43 pm | [comment link]

3. Sidney wrote: The same source also gives SC at 13.2 %.  Perhaps the difference is that the numbers are not ‘seasonally adjusted’ there.  My understanding is that CA is currently at 12.5% (seasonally adjusted, I assume.) March 14, 12:44 am | [comment link]

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