Midlands residents at unemployment office.
/ FILE
COLUMBIA (WACH, AP) -- State unemployment rates climbed slightly according to the most recent report released by the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce Tuesday.
SCDEW says statewide 10.7 percent of people are unemployed as of December. That number is up from 10.6 percent in November.
Total employment increased by nearly 4,400 last month, but it wasn't enough to drop the jobless rate.
Most of the increase came in retail, education and health, and professional and business services. The biggest drops came in tourism-related businesses.
Here in the Midlands, Clarendon County held the highest unemployment rate while Lexington County maintained the lowest number.
| County | Unemployed | Unemployment Rate |
| Calhoun | 797 | 11.7% |
| Clarendon | 2,012 | 15.5% |
| Fairfield | 1,475 | 13.2% |
| Kershaw | 2,951 | 9.9% |
| Lee | 1,128 | 13.5% |
| Lexington | 10,660 | 8.0% |
| Newberry | 1,964 | 10.8% |
| Orangeburg | 6,217 | 15.0% |
| Richland | 16,721 | 9.3% |
| Saluda | 835 | 9.3% |
| Sumter | 5,356 | 12.4 |
Get more data from December 2010 from the Department of Employment and Workforce by clicking here.
The national unemployment rate in December was 9.4 percent.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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