COLUMBIA (WACH) -- South Carolina's unemployment rate declined to 10.5 percent in January.
The latest report is an improvement of four-tenths of a percent from a 10.9 percent revised rate for December. As the 5th consecutive month of employment growth for the state, this represents an additional 3,599 people going back to work.
"Employment in South Carolina has risen during the past 12 months and now stands at 18,600 more people with jobs compared to this same time last year," said SC Department of Employment and Workforce Executive Director John Finan.
Marion County has the highest unemployment in the state with 21 percent. Lexington ranks at the bottom with 7.4 percent.
"Manufacturing is starting to pick up. We're also starting to see it in retail, so it's kind of across the board, except in construction and government," said USC Professor of Economics Dr. Bob Woodward.
Here is a look at how counties across the Midlands ranked in January:
| Rank | County | January 2011 | Change |
| 8 | Clarendon | 15.3% | -0.1% |
| 10 | Orangeburg | 14.9% | -0.3% |
| 15 | Fairfield | 14.0% | 0.4% |
| 16 | Lee | 13.8% | 0.2% |
| 26 | Calhoun | 11.3% | -0.5% |
| 27 | Sumter | 11.1% | -0.6% |
| 31 | Newberry | 10.5% | -0.3% |
| 34 | Kershaw | 9.6% | -0.4% |
| 37 | Saluda | 9.0% | -0.3% |
| 40 | Richland | 8.5% | -0.8% |
| 43 | Aiken | 8.1% | -0.2% |
| 46 | Lexington | 7.4% | -0.7% |
Nationally, unemployment declined to a nearly two-year low of 8.9 percent
South Carolina's jobless rate was the seventh-highest in the country at year's end and has been persistently high for much of the past decade. The rate peaked at 12.5 percent in January 2010.
"We are cautiously optimistic about what this means in terms of jobs and the job market here in South Carolina," explains Adrienee Fairwell with the Department of Employment and Workforce.
Click here to read the full report from the SCDEW.
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