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(AP) -- COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolinians are hoping for some good cheer this holiday season when the latest unemployment rate is released.

The Employment Security Commission is expected on Friday to release the state's November jobless rate.

In October, South Carolina's unemployment rate reached 12.1 percent. That figure placed the state fifth-highest in the country and matched a record state jobless rate set earlier in the year.

Economists disagreed at a conference earlier this month over when South Carolina's economy will begin recovering in the new year.

But the experts agreed that it will take years for the state's unemployment rate to fall below double-digits.

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