Thread: Side Effect of Illegal Immigration

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Dec 16, 1:27 PM EST

SC unemployment reaches 7.1 percent

By PAGE IVEY
Associated Press Writer

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina's unemployment rate reached 7.1 percent in November - matching this year's previous high recorded in February, the state Employment Security Commission said Friday.

The rate was up from 6.9 percent in October. The state again had the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation behind the hurricane-ravaged states Mississippi and Louisiana.

The national unemployment rate held steady in November at 5 percent.

Labor market analyst Sam McClary said he hopes the jobless rate has "topped out at 7.1" percent.

"A lot depends on what happens at Christmas," McClary said.

Early indications are that seasonal employment will be down from previous years. Retail businesses added just 2,900 jobs in November, according to state statistics. Typically, those businesses would add between 4,000 and 5,000 jobs, McClary said.

"We recognize that it could get worse before it gets better," he said.

Total employment was 1.85 million jobs in November 2005 - up 800 jobs from last month and 8,200 jobs from a year ago.

In addition to gains in the trade sector, education employment was up 6,300 jobs from a year ago, but government employment was down 1,400 jobs from last November.

The biggest job losses were leisure and hospitality, down 5,700 jobs from October and manufacturing, which had 1,900 fewer jobs from month to month. Nearly 8,000 manufacturing jobs were lost since November 2004.

Republican Gov. Mark Sanford has been criticized while the state's jobless rate has remained high and even was named one of the nation's worst governors last month by Time magazine because of high unemployment and falling income levels.

Sanford said Friday an influx of people into the state's work force is to blame for the increasing unemployment rate.

"Over the past three months, South Carolina's labor force has grown at the fastest rate in the continental United States, accounting for much of the state's rise in the unemployment rate," the governor said.

According to seasonally adjusted figures from the Employment Security Commission, there were about 2.1 million people in South Carolina's work force at the end of last month. That's an increase of more than 35,000 since August. That followed slower growth in the work force for much of the year and a statistical decrease from February to March 2005, when the U.S. Labor Department changed the way it estimates employment.

"We're always going to be concerned about the number of people without work in our state, but the bottom line is that the unemployment number alone doesn't tell the whole story with what's happening with respect to the economy," Sanford said.

The governor said recent economic development announcements including a new DaimlerChrysler van plant and an expansion at Michelin North America show progress in job creation.

For November, Marion County had the highest unemployment rate at 15 percent - a 2 percentage point increase from last month - while Lexington and Beaufort counties had the lowest rate at 5 percent.

How can a state tolerate illegal immigrants coming into a bad job situation like that.