South Carolina’s Employment Situation

COLUMBIA, SC – December 28, 2012 – For the fourth consecutive month,South Carolina’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped—to 8.3percent in November from the October estimate of 8.6 percent. 

Thenumber of unemployed people fell over the month by 6,434 to 176,953.There was a rise in the number of employed people, up 9,758 to1,964,377. The total labor force ticked up slightly (+3,324) to2,141,330. The unemployment rate has fallen 1.5 percentage points sinceNovember 2011.
 
Nationally, the unemployment rate also fell from7.9 percent in October to 7.7 percent in November. This was causedmainly by a drop of 350,000 in the overall labor force.
 
SinceOctober 2012, South Carolina’s nonagricultural employment (notseasonally-adjusted) increased 7,100 to 1,880,900. In the last year, thenumber of jobs in the state was up 33,200 (about 1.8 percent), whilethe number of jobs in the U.S. grew by 1.4 percent.
 
Employment by Industry

• Withthe Christmas holidays rapidly approaching, increased hiring in RetailTrade pushed the Trade, Transportation and Utilities industry up by 1.5percent or 5,500.
• Other positive employment trends wereGovernment (+3,100), Education and Health Services (+1,200),Manufacturing (+1,100), Information (+200) and Financial Services(+100).
• There were some industries that lost employment sinceOctober 2012: Leisure and Hospitality (-2,200 jobs); Professional andBusiness Services (-1,400); and Construction (-700). These industrylosses were seen in accommodation and food services in the coastalareas, administrative and support services, and Specialty TradeContractors. The Mining and Logging industries were unchanged over themonth.