Tri-County Upstate experiences rise in Unemployment

In January, South Carolina broke yet another record for the number of people working as the total grew to 2,080,031, an increase of approximately 10,841 people. Despite that, the tri-county area of the Upstate experienced slight gains in unemployment. Oconee County’s jobless rate for January is 6.5%, up from 6.2% in December. Pickens County posted 6.4% in January compared to 5.3% in December. Anderson County’s jobless rate is 6.2% for January, which is an increase from 5.4% in December 2014. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 6.6% in January, showing no change from the revised December estimate. Nationally, the unemployment rate in January 2015 was unchanged from December 2014 at 5.7%.