Governor Mark Sanford (web|news) dismissed the latest numbers released by the State Employment Security Commission that showed a sharp decrease in the state's jobless rate. The agency showed the Palmetto State's February unemployment rate dropped to the lowest level in six and a half years.
The rate in February was 5.5 percent, well below January's 6.1 percent. South Carolina's jobless rate is now the lowest since it was 5.5 percent in September 2001.
"While we'd normally be very pleased about a drop this significant in the unemployment rate, we're beginning to develop some real concerns about the reliability and accuracy of these numbers," Gov. Sanford said.
"Just a few months ago, the Employment Security Commission announced one of the biggest increases in unemployment rate in state history. Then, come to find out, it didn't happen at all - the ESC quietly revised their numbers about a month later, and realized they had undercounted 20,000 jobs last year. Not only that, their revisions indicated that they had undercounted South Carolina jobs every single month in 2007. We're quickly getting to the point where one could lose confidence in the data that agency is producing. That's a real problem, because as policy makers we depend on having reliable data as we make decisions with respect to the South Carolina economy. It's worth taking another look to see how mistakes of this magnitude keep being made."
Roosevelt "Ted" Halley, Executive Director of the S.C. Employment Security Commission, and Janet Rankin, Regional Commissioner for the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which oversees the calculation of the unemployment figures, released individual statements backing the veracity of the monthly report.
"Estimates of South Carolina’s job numbers and unemployment rate are based entirely on methodologies mandated by the national Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)," Halley said.
"As such, they meet the strict statistical standards for accuracy also mandated by BLS. We recently completed our annual benchmark of employment and unemployment in SC, a process that occurs at the same time every year. During benchmarking, a process also prescribed by BLS, data which was previously estimated based on sampling is replaced by more complete job counts provided by employers during the year. It is not unusual for benchmarked numbers to vary significantly from estimates during times of volatility in our state and national economy. Even given these tumultuous economic times, South Carolina’s estimates continue to be well within BLS standards and have been recognized as some of the best in this region of the nation. We continue to stand by our numbers."
In a separate statement, Rankin wrote to Halley.
"As a standard practice, each year the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) conducts an annual review of each state's Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) model. The South Carolina model generates the estimates you publish for total unemployment on a monthly basis. Also, we have just completed our annual review of each state's monthly employment estimates based on the monthly establishment survey. I am writing to let you know your state is in compliance with all BLS employment and unemployment estimating methodologies," said Rankin.
The national rate for February was 4.8 percent, down from 4.9 percent the previous month.
State Employment Security Commission data shows the lower rate came as 13,000 fewer people reported they were unemployed during February and nonagricultural employers had 2,100 more people on payrolls.
Allendale County had the highest jobless rate at 13.9 percent and Lexington County had the lowest at 4.2 percent. Seven counties had unemployment rates below the national average.
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