UPDATE: South Carolina unemployment rate surpasses 12%

Updated: 11:01 AM

Local unemployment numbers(October compared to September):
Williamsburg County up to 16.0%, from 15.2%.
Colleton County up to 14.3%, from 14.0%.
Georgetown County up to 13.0%, from 12.3%
Berkeley County up to 10.9%, from 10.6%.
Dorchester County up to 10.3%, from 10.2%.
Charleston County up to 9.4%, from 9.0%.

The unemployment rate in South Carolina rose nearly half a percentage point in October, to 12.1 percent. The Employment Security Commission also said
Friday it had revised September’s rate up 0.1 percentage points, to 11.7.

The agency says the number of unemployed people in South Carolina went up by nearly 10,000 in October, to about 263,000.

The state’s overall job count was down 60,500 from a year ago. It’s nearly 95,000 below December 2007, when the recession began.

Allendale County had the state’s highest jobless rate, at 22 percent. Unemployment was lowest in Lexington County, at 8.6 percent.

State-by-state unemployment numbers for October were to be released later Friday. South Carolina’s September jobless rate was
the nation’s fifth-highest.