January jobless rate up

Unemployment rose in both Oconee County and South Carolina in January, but more people were working than during January the year before. The Department of Employment and Workforce today reported the Oconee unemployment rate for the first month of the year reached 9.5%—-as compared with December’s 9%. Yet the number of Oconeeans on the job in January 2013 was higher than both December 2012 and January 2012. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in South Carolina increased slightly from the revised rate of 8.6% in December 2012 to 8.7% in January 2013. That mirrored a trend nationwide. Nationally, the unemployment rate rose slightly from 7.8% in December 2012 to 7.9% in January 2013. Those figures are telling economist Bruce Yandle in Clemson a couple of things, and he explains today on 96.3/WGOG NEWS.” Among the state’s 46 counties, Oconee’s rate in January was 26th highest.