The Palmetto State added 3,000 jobs in January in the manufacturing and trade, transportation, and utility sectors, though the statewide unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent from last months’ 4.2 percent, according to numbers from the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce.
Charleston County boasts the lowest unemployment rate in the state at four percent. That number is also slightly up from last month’s 3.3 percent, though county figures are not adjusted for seasonal job losses. Fairfield County fared the worst, with an unemployment rate of 10.1 percent in January. Greenville County has the most unemployed people, 10,602.
Anyone deemed to be “actively seeking employment” is counted in unemployment figures. Those numbers are based on the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly household survey. The number of jobs per industry is deduced from wage filings with the Department of Labor.
The national unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent for the month of January 2018.
The manufacturing sector added the most jobs in the state: 3,100.
“Companies have just found South Carolina to provide them what they need to come here and open a plant or expand their plant, and we’re providing them with their number one resource: people,” says Department of Employment and Workforce communications director Bob Bouyea. “When companies come here, that’s the number one question they ask — do you have a labor force? And we’re able to provide that labor force for them.”
Though the total unemployment level in South Carolina rose by 2,299 people from December to January, Bouyea says the figure is still within the “steady range” expected by the state.
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