COLUMBIA, S.C. - A new federal report says South Carolina's job growth ranked 50th in the nation during the second quarter.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. report gives Democrats more fodder on a pocketbook issue in the 2006 gubernatorial race.

During the second quarter, South Carolina's job growth was less than a tenth of a percent, according to the FDIC analysis. North Carolina ranked 24th with 1.42 percent growth and Georgia was 47th with a 0.5 percent growth rate. Nevada was first with a 6.5 percent rate. Michigan, where employment shrank to 0.64 percent, ranked 51st in the survey, which also included Puerto Rico.

Declines in service-providers, including education and professional services, and losses in manufacturing "continue to constrain growth" in the South Carolina, analysts said

The report says the Palmetto State's prospects are "further weakening" in the current quarter.

The state Democratic Party sees the economy and sluggish job growth as a prime issue as Republican Gov. Mark Sanford seeks a second term next year.

State Democratic Party Chairman Joe Erwin said Sanford "seems totally incapable of leading South Carolina out of this mess. While Democrats and Republicans have offered to assist his job creation efforts, he continues to adopt a lone-ranger attitude and South Carolina continues to fall further and further behind the rest of the nation."

Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said Democrats are "playing politics with a situation the governor is working very hard to improve."

Sawyer says Sanford is engaged in the issue.

"Look at the Council on Competitiveness. That's a bipartisan effort for businesspeople that the Gov.'s Office helped start and fund," Sawyer said.

State Senate Minority Leader John Land III, D-Manning, says "reality has eluded" Sanford, who "continues to paint a rosy picture of South Carolina's economy. But the facts say otherwise."

The FDIC report and the Democratic Party's criticism come in the wake of Standard & Poor's July decision to downgrade the state's AAA credit rating by a notch to AA-plus. The rating agency cited poor job and economic growth as reasons for its action.

Sawyer says the state is trying to recruit jobs in the face of trends that take them away.

"It's no secret South Carolina is still reeling from globalization to a certain extent, particularly with textile jobs," Sawyer said. "Add to that, of the jobs recruited in the 1990s by the Department of Commerce, 36 percent of them aren't here any more."

Earlier this year, The Greenville News reported that South Carolina had lost more than 76,000 manufacturing jobs over a five-year period, 4.2 percent of its total labor force and one of the worst percentage losses in the nation.

An analysis of state employment data showed the replacement jobs were, overall, lower paying positions in the service sector, and the trend showed no signs of letting up.

The manufacturing sector still employs more than 220,000 people statewide, or nearly 15 percent of the state's labor force, an indication that thousands more could be forced to find new careers.

Sawyer says there are gains, too. That includes a $200 million investment in Land's home county by Grant Forest Products that will create 100 jobs and a $560 million, 645-employee aircraft fuselage supplier in North Charleston.