By PAGE IVEY
Associated Press Writer
Published: December 19, 2008
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – An additional 11,500 people in South Carolina joined the ranks of the unemployed last month, driving the state’s jobless rate to 8.4 percent.
State unemployment officials said Friday that November’s rate was up from a revised 7.9 percent rate in October and compares with a national rate of 6.7 percent. Nearly 183,000 people are unemployed in South Carolina.
Retailers added just 1,300 jobs last month, well below the typical holiday hiring level, Halley said in a news release Friday.
The state’s top economic advisers have predicted that unemployment could reach an unprecedented 14 percent next year.
Retired Clemson University economist Bruce Yandle, who has advised the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors for decades, said Friday his estimates show the jobless rate peaking around 12 percent next year.
“Fourteen percent. That is a large number. I don’t see it, but I’m not going to say it’s not going to happen,“ Yandle said, adding that many companies in the state closely tied to the auto industry have announced layoffs that are yet to show up in the jobless count.
The high number of people seeking unemployment benefits has depleted the fund the state uses to make those payments. Unemployment officials have said they will need to borrow $147 million from the federal government to make payments in the first three months of the year.
Unemployment rates in November rose in five of the Pee Dee counties.
Marion County had the second highest rate in the state with 17.1 percent which was 1.3 percent above October’s rate of 15.8 percent.
Marlboro County was fifth in the state at 14.2 but it was down from Ocotober’s 15.3 percent. Williamsburg County was eighth with a rate of 12.7 percent up from 11.4 percent in October.
Dillon County was 11th with a rate of 12 percent up from 11.9 in October. Chesterfield was 16th with a rate 11.3 percent up from 10.9 percent in October. Darlington County was 20th with a rate of 10.3 percent up from 9.4 percent in October.
Florence County was 33rd with a rate of 8.1 percent which was the same in October.
Marlboro County’s rate dropped slightly and Florence County’s rate stayed the same.
Along the Grand Strand Horry County was 24th with a rate of 10.2 percent up from 8.4 in October. Georgetown County was 21st with a rate of 10.2 percent up from 8.7 percent in October.
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