South Carolina Unemployment Drops Below 10% (Columbia, Charleston: insurance, employment, vs.)

[gsupstate]

Good news. South Carolina's jobless rate dropped below 10% in November.
South Carolina’s jobless rate drops below 10 percent - Business - TheState.com (http://www.thestate.com/2011/12/20/2086514/south-carolinas-jobless-rate-drops.html - broken link)

For November, here is how the big three metro's and the big three counties stand:

Metros:
Greenville metro: 7.7 unemployment
Charleston metro: 7.8 unemployment
Columbia metro: 7.9 unemployment

Big 3 Counties:
Greenville: 7.4 unemployment
Charleston: 7.4 unemployment
Richland: 8.0 unemployment

http://dew.sc.gov/documents/lmi-mont...ember_2011.pdf

[myrc60]

Good news; let's hope the number keeps falling after the new year.

[Columbiadata]

According to economists, more important than unemployment rates is total employment growth. I guess that's because unemployment rates can drop when more people give up looking for jobs.

Total employment growth for the state's three major metros:

From October to November:
Columbia 3,200
Charleston 2,400
Greenville 1,000

From November 2010 to November 2011:
Columbia 8,700
Charleston 5,000
Greenville 3,200

It's good to see the three major metros all moving in the right direction.

http://dew.sc.gov/documents/lmi-mont...ember_2011.pdf

[101everett]

Originally Posted by Columbiadata

According to economists, more important than unemployment rates is total employment growth. I guess that's because unemployment rates can drop when more people give up looking for jobs.

Total employment growth for the state's three major metros:

From October to November:
Columbia 3,200
Charleston 2,400
Greenville 1,000

From November 2010 to November 2011:
Columbia 8,700
Charleston 5,000
Greenville 3,200

It's good to see the three major metros all moving in the right direction.

http://dew.sc.gov/documents/lmi-mont...ember_2011.pdf

So you're telling me Columbia created the most jobs but still has the worst unemployment? That suks. Is old NikkiNik laying off employees?

[Columbiadata]

As I said, the unemployment rate isn't the thing to focus on, and 1 to 2/10th's of a percentage point is insignificant anyway. I'm looking for evidence of a significant net gain of jobs, and the stats provide the evidence. Besides, some said Columbia would tank with government laying off employees, but it is adding the most jobs by a long shot and already had a significantly larger labor force than the state's other two bigs.

[gsupstate]

Originally Posted by 101everett

So you're telling me Columbia created the most jobs but still has the worst unemployment? That suks. Is old NikkiNik laying off employees?

Interesting point. Richland County / Columbia added the most jobs, but still had an 8.0 unemployment.....worse than other cities that added fewer jobs. That says their economy was worse than maybe realized. Perhaps that is the reason it was listed as one of the 20 weakest performing metro areas?

Augusta listed in Brookings' 20 weakest-performing metro areas | The Augusta Chronicle

[Columbiadata]

The Columbia metro is more than Richland County/Columbia. And as the experts have said, a lower unemployment rate often means people have given up looking. I'd say that a slightly higher unemployment rate with a much bigger gain in total employment equals more people moving into a metro and not only looking for work but finding it. I guess we can say what we want to say and think what we want to think, but a net gain of 8,700 jobs in a year compared to 3,200 is hard to debate. Also, given the unfortunate employment situation among Black Americans, I'd say that with Columbia's population being about 43% Black and Richland County's slightly higher, both Columbia and Richland County are shining stars to have unemployment rates lower than that of the nation, which is only about 13% Black.

*I know that only some people will see this post.*

[Columbiadata]

South Carolina's unemployment rate fell to 9.3% in January, down from 9.6% the month before.

Charleston MSA: 7.7%
Greenville MSA: 7.6%
Columbia MSA: 7.9%

Because jobs added or lost tell more about the economy than the unemployment rate according to the state's leading economists, the following are lists of jobs lost (unfortunately) from December '11 to January '12 and jobs added from January '11 to January '12 for the state's three largest MSAs.


Jobs lost Dec '11 - Jan '12:

Charleston 3,800
Columbia 3,800
Greenville 6,900



Jobs gained Jan '11 -Jan '12:

Charleston 6,800
Columbia 7,400
Greenville 6,600

In general we seem to be moving in the right direction. With the strong manufacturing, insurance, information technology, tourism and research sectors we have in this state, our future is looking brighter. Incidentally, our neighbor to the north had 10.2% unemployment in January, but there again jobs lost or gained tell more than the unemployment rate, and I don't know how NC doing with losses vs. gains.

[g-man430]

Great to see that Greenville MSA has the lowest unemployment rate. That's what matters the most in my opinion. Goes perfectly along with this: Forbes: Greenville Top In U.S. For New Hires - Greenville News Story - WYFF Greenville and http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquely...this-spring-2/

[Columbiadata]

Originally Posted by g-man430

Love that because the Greenville MSA has the lowest unemployment rate, you have to go and post numbers to make the area look bad. Wow.

This is all that needs to be said right here: Forbes: Greenville Top In U.S. For New Hires - Greenville News Story - WYFF Greenville and The Best And Worst Cities For Jobs This Spring - Forbes

Both pieces of news are what they are. Forbes knows best.