Fund that provides unemployment benefits about to run dry

Hiring has slowed. Job losses are up.

That worrisome combination prompted Employment Security Commission officials to warn the trust fund that pays benefits to outof work residents will likely run dry early next year.

In 2000, the trust fund contained nearly $800 million. Because more people are unemployed and more money is going out of the fund than is coming in, that figure has dropped to $115 million.

"It's a big concern," said Joan Penland, area director of the South Carolina Employment Security Commission.

But Penland said unemployed county residents will continue to receive their benefits. The federal government provides loans to states that deplete their trust funds.

"The benefits will be paid," Penland said. "There will be information coming to them from the central office (in Columbia)."

Penland said the state is paying out $10 million a week in unemployment benefits. That figure will likely rise, since benefits historically increase during the fourth quarter of each year.

Statewide, the jobless rate is at a 15-year high, reaching 7.6 percent in August. The unemployment rate here rose to 9.7 percent in August, up from 9.1 percent in July.

According to state Employment Commission figures, there were 2,503 unemployed Cherokee County residents last month, a jump of about 200 from July.

But Penland said that number will probably increase since the local August figures didn't include the 325 workers laid off by Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation. Penland said the rise in local unemployment figures is due primarily to job losses in the manufacturing sector.

Penland said it's too early to tell if the economic downtown will continue into 2009.

But Tampa-based munitions DSE Inc., which will locate in the former National Textiles plant on Hwy. 329, has begun filling some of its white-collar jobs. Jim Cook, director of the Cherokee County Development Board, said the company could begin hiring its assembly line workers before the end of the year.

The company has announced plans to employ as many as 215 people within five years.

Cook said he's cautiously optimistic the economic gloom could lift soon.

"The good news is that the current industries don't anticipate additional layoffs," he said. "And I'm encouraged with the amount of activity going on. We have a lot of people (potential employers) looking (at the area as a potential location for their operations)."