COLUMBIA —
Even as South Carolina’s unemployment rate stood still at 6.6 percent, Beaufort and Jasper counties experienced rising rates.
Nationally, the unemployment rate in January was 5.7 percent, following a historic trend of being lower than South Carolina’s jobless rate. From December to January, Jasper County rose from 5.4 to 6.2 percent, while Beaufort County’s jobless rate grew from 5.9 to 6.3 percent.
That’s despite job growth in leisure and hospitality leading the other categories with the addition of 3,100 jobs. It was followed by trade, transportation, and utilities with 1,600 jobs, education and health services with 1,500 and other services with 900.
Manufacturing suffered the worst losses, shedding 1,700 jobs, followed by government with a 1,400-job decline, professional and business services with 1,200, and 400 jobs eliminated in information. The head of the S.C. Department of Workforce and Employment welcomed the latest jobs picture.
“January marks the 62nd consecutive month of employment growth in South Carolina,” said Director Cheryl Stanton in a news release. “All of South Carolina should celebrate as the state’s economy continues to expand and add jobs. As a state, we must also work more strategically to align available workers with the more than 70,000 available jobs. Gov. (Nikki) Haley’s SucceedSC plan that will train the state’s workforce in high-demand jobs will do just that.”