South Carolina’s unemployment rate drops to 12.2 percent in March; almost 16,000 jobs added

SC’s jobless rate drops to 12.2 percent in March

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina added almost 16,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate dropped to 12.2 percent, signs of an improving economy that experts said Friday is still fragile.

“The strength and sustainability of this recovery is still highly uncertain,” Coastal Carolina University economist Don Schunk said in a news release.

March’s jobless rate was down from a revised 12.4 percent in February, but much higher than the 11.1 percent reported last March. The national jobless rate in March was unchanged from February at 9.7 percent.

South Carolina had the sixth-highest rate in the nation, behind Michigan (14.1 percent), Nevada (13.4 percent), California and Rhode Island (each at 12.6 percent), and Florida (12.3 percent). But that was an improvement over recent months when the state ranked in the top three.

“We are encouraged by the improvement we have seen over the past couple of months,” said Samuel R. Foster, interim executive director of the South Carolina Employment Security Commission. “However, the state’s economy remains fragile. We have a ways to go before we can feel confident that unemployment is on a path to sustained recovery.”

The number of people unemployed and actively seeking work declined by more than 5,600 during March, but the state’s overall labor force also shrank by almost 1,000 for the month.

From March 2009, the state had 15,300 fewer jobs and the labor force was 11,000 people smaller.

Schunk said since the economy bottomed out in October 2009, the state has added about 2,500 jobs a month.

“If the state continues to add jobs at this pace, it will be mid-2014 before the state ‘recovers’ all of the jobs lost during the recession,” Schunk said in his news release.

Every sector except manufacturing showed job gains for the month, with the biggest gains coming in hospitality (4,600) and trade, transportation and utilities (4,000). Even construction, which has been hit hard by the housing industry bust and ensuing credit crunch, added 900 jobs in March. Total employment in that sector is still 11,400 below last March.

Marion County continued to have the state’s highest jobless rate at 20.7 percent, but that was significantly improved from February’s 22.7 percent. The counties with the lowest unemployment rates were Aiken and Lexington at 8.5 percent.

Earlier this month, Gov. Mark Sanford signed into law a measure that makes the Employment Security Commission part of his cabinet. Sanford has criticized the commission as high unemployment has depleted the trust fund used for jobless benefits and forced the state to borrow from the federal government to pay out-of-work residents.