S.C. Jobless Rate Depressed Since 2008

Five years after the Great Recession began in earnest in South Carolina, the state’s jobless rate remains stuck.

About 106,000 more South Carolinians had jobs in August 2008 than did this August. And the state’s jobless rate – 8.1 percent – is still a full percentage point higher than it was five years ago.

Then, in the fall of 2008, home sales were beginning to slide, the jobless rate was rising and, nationally, financial services firm Lehman Brothers just had filed the single largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Economic conditions took a sharp turn for the worse. The jobless rate in South Carolina rocketed up to nearly 12 percent by the end of 2009. Historically, a fast downturn has meant a fast recovery, said Frank Hefner, an economist with the College of Charleston.

But not anymore.

The Great Recession was different from downturns caused by an oil crisis or a tech bubble, Hefner said. It permeated all sectors of the economy. And it will take recovery in most of those sectors for the jobless rates to improve, he added.

The jobless rate in South Carolina has dropped excruciatingly slowly over the past 31/2 years. Since April, it has hovered around 8 percent, according to figures the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce released Friday.

“That just shows the depths of this financial disaster,” Hefner said. “Not all recessions are the same. … This was a financial crisis; we haven’t seen one since the 1920s, ’30s.”

South Carolina’s lingering financial woes will be the subject of heated debate over the next year.

Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, who is seeking re-election in 2014, says more than 37,000 jobs and $9 billion in investment have been announced since she took office in 2011.

“These numbers continue to grow every week, and the governor won’t stop building on them until every South Carolinian has a job,” spokesman Doug Mayer said.

However, state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, who will challenge Haley in the governor’s race next year, said Friday’s unemployment report “marks three months of no progress on jobs.”

“South Carolina continues to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, all while middle-class families take a hit from falling income and struggle to keep their heads above water,” Sheheen said. “We can do better.”

‘A lot of problems’

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