Cherokee County’s jobless could take heart in one small fact, since the latest jobless report from the South Carolina Employment Security Commission shows they are far from alone.

Despite the fact there have been no major closures or significant layoffs recently, the county’s unemployment rate climbed a whopping seven tenths of a percentage point to 17.1 percent in January, up from a revised December 2009 rate of 16.4 percent.

At least for January, however, Cherokee County was in good company as all 46 counties in South Carolina experienced an uptick in unemployment.

Officials in Columbia had been warning for several months that a process called benchmarking, through which monthly unemployment rate estimates would be compared to more concrete data, would likely result in some significant revisions to unemployment rate figures.

Benchmarking showed the December 2009 labor market estimates for South Carolina had overestimated the total number of jobs by 34,700. That resulted in a revision of the December 2009 unemployment rate from a record high of 12.6 percent to 12.4 percent.

Unfortunately, South Carolina’s new record of 12.6 percent unemployment occurred in January, according to the latest jobs report.

And the worst may not be over yet, despite signs on a national scale the economy is beginning to improve.

“While declines have slowed, we still think there will be some troubling times ahead for the next few months,” said Steve McLaughlin, a labor analyst at the state Employment Security Commission.

“Nationally, we’re seeing some positive signs,” he said. “Other states are seeing some growth in retail and stabilization in manufacturing. But here in South Carolina, we still expect some tough times yet to come.”

The national unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the nation’s jobless rate fell to 9.7 percent in January from 10 percent in December.

On a county-by-county basis, Cherokee County currently has the 15th-worst unemployment rate in South Carolina.

In hard-hit Allendale and Marion counties, where unemployment rates climbed in January to 24.3 percent, nearly one of every four workingage persons is unemployed.

Lexington County, which has the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 9.4 percent, saw its rate climb six tenths of a percentage point from 8.8 percent in December.

According to the latest estimates, Cherokee County had a labor force of 25,505 people in January, down about 70 from December 2009. The number of unemployed Cherokee County residents was estimated at 4,359 in January, up about 160 from December 2009.

Evidence of the prolonged impact of the Great Recession, Cherokee County’s unemployment rate had changed somewhat little from a year ago, when the unemployment rate stood at 14.9 percent.

The uptick in Cherokee County’s unemployment rate occurred despite the lack of major announcements by local companies, several of which have actually rehired workers that were laid off last year.

Karen Lawson, area director for the Employment Security Commission Office in Gaffney, believed most of the increase in the local jobless rate stemmed from post-holiday staff reductions in the retail sector, which typically brings in temporary help for the holiday season.

“I feel like that’s most of the problem,” she said.

She added that the local ESC office has been seeing a lot of job activity of late, including new job listings and companies calling people back.

Several new employers are coming to the area as well. Lawson said the ESC is taking applications for work at Tractor Supply Company, which is opening a new store on West Floyd Baker Boulevard.

And other jobs are available. At the moment, she said, there are currently 82 job listings on the ESC’s rolls.

Indicative of the wide ranging impacts, jobs were shed statewide in retail, leisure and hospitality, professional and businesses services, education and health services, construction and even the government sectors, according to the January jobs report.

Manufacturing jobs held steady in South Carolina from December to January, but officials didn’t find any meaning in this.

“It’s a single data point,” McLaughlin said. “You have to look at the overall trend and manufacturing has been trending downward for many years.”

Not only are manufacturers losing jobs to offshore competition, McLaughlin said they’re becoming more efficient, doing more with fewer workers.

Dr. Bruce Yandle, dean emeritus of Clemson University’s College of Business & Behavioral Science and director of the Strom Thurmond Institute Economic Outlook Project, noted in the most recent edition of his widely-read economics report that all the efforts in Washington D.C. to stimulate the economy were making it difficult for business owners to assess what the economy is actually doing.

“(President) Obama wants to see one million new employees added to the ranks of America’s small businesses,” he wrote. “I do as well. But adding just one new full-time hire when your toes can barely touch the bottom in a recession’s deep end is risky business, and for one major reason. In February 2010, there is no way to know what really lies ahead; there is no way to distinguish between stimulus and the real economy. Too many policy boulders are being dropped in the water.”

Yandle believes small business owners will likely hold off on hiring and investment decisions until they get a better fix on the “real” economy.

“Perhaps,” he wrote, “we need six months of political silence.”

The latest unemployment report released Wednesday showed Cherokee County's unemployment rate for January climbed to 17.1 percent, up a whopping seven-tenths of a percentage point from a revised December 2009 rate of 16.4 percent. Cherokee County wasn't alone, however, as every county in South Carolina saw unemployment rates creep up in January.
January 2010: 17.1%
December 2009: 16.4% (revised)
November 2009: 16.8% (revised)
October 2009: 16.6%
September 2009: 16.2%
August 2009: 16.2% (revised)
July 2009: 16.9% (revised)
June 2009: 17.4% (revised)
May 2009: 17.3%
April 2009: 16.8% (revised)
March 2009: 17.0%
February 2009: 16.9%
January 2009: 14.9% (revised)
December 2008: 13%
November 2008: 11.7%
October 2008: 11.3%
September 2008: 9.8%

SOURCE: South Carolina







Employment Security







Commission