S.C. has slight gain in jobs

S.C. has slight gain in jobs

Overall employment in South Carolina rose slightly in February as services hired and factories fired fewer workers than in past months, the S.C. Employment Security Commission said Wednesday.

The state gained 10,100 jobs from January to February, up 0.6 percent. The gains pushed employment to slightly more than 1.8 million workers.

A 1 percent gain of 1,800 jobs in professional services — occupations ranging from lawyers to computer programmers — was encouraging. But the overall gain was typical for the month in which the state starts recovering from the usual job losses of January, said Sam McClary, an assistant director in the commission’s statistics branch.

“There’s very little change in hardly anything,” he said.

The Columbia metro area gained 900 jobs, up 0.3 percent from January. The increase left Richland and Lexington counties with 296,400 jobs — 11,800 fewer than in February 2003. About 900 of the jobs added last month were in professional services.

Statewide, factory job losses slowed last month as manufacturers of machinery and other durable goods added 900 jobs. At the same time, manufacturers of nondurables, such as textiles and chemicals, cut 1,000 more jobs. Factories employed 269,900 last month, down 11,800 from February 2003.

The strongest gains in South Carolina during the past year were among restaurants, hotels, hospitals and banks. They added 18,900 jobs, a 4 percent gain.

All services have added 24,800 jobs in the past year, up 2 percent, while goods producers — manufacturing, mining and construction — lost 13,600 jobs, a 3 percent drop.

Reach DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305 or jduplessi@thestate.com