Myrtle Beach area jobless rates slowly improving

Jobs are slowly coming back to Horry County, but they aren’t returning as fast as most would like to see.

Horry County had 2,700 more jobs at the end of 2011 than it did at the end of 2010, and the jobless rate -- though still in the double digits and substantially higher than pre-recession levels -- also improved year-over-year, dropping to 11.6 percent in December from 13.1 percent in December 2010, according to statistics released Tuesday by the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce.

Georgetown County followed a similar trend, with the jobless rate at 10.4 percent in December from 12.4 percent in December 2010.

“We are definitely climbing back, moving in the right direction,” said Rob Salvino, research economist at Coastal Carolina University. “We are coming down. We just have a long way to go.”

Joblessness will continue to improve this year, though economists say it will be slow and steady. The average jobless rate in Horry County in 2011 was 10.9 percent, more than twice as high as the average 5.2 percent in 2007 before the recession, Salvino said.

Myrtle Beach is predicted to have the largest percentage increase in jobs in 2012, according to a study by IHS Global Insight for the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Council for the New American City released last week.

By the end of 2012, there should be 122,500 jobs in the area, an increase of 3,600 jobs or 3 percent - the largest percentage increase of the 363 metropolitan areas studied. The number of jobs in the Myrtle Beach area grew by about 2.44 percent in 2011, according to the state workforce department.

Manufacturing led the way statewide, adding 11,600 jobs in 2011, and that momentum is expected to continue this year, economists said. And leisure and hospitality, the backbone of the coastal economy, added 6,700 jobs statewide in 2011, according to the state workforce department.

Despite the year-over -year improvement, this is the peak time for unemployment along the Grand Strand, when tourism businesses have cut back workers for the slow, winter off-season. Horry County’s jobless rate jumped in December from November, as it usually does this time of year, by more than a percentage point. Georgetown County’s rate also nudged up from the 9.7 percent in November. Those rates typically improve as the busy summer tourism season approaches and businesses add workers to take care of the rush of visitors.

Statewide, hospitality shed 3,500 jobs in December, according to the state workforce department.

“These are in line with expectations,” Salvino said. “That is what happens in a tourist town.”

But South Carolina, which has consistently had one of the highest jobless rates in the country, improved for the fourth consecutive month in December, dropping to 9.5 percent from 9.9 percent in November and 10.9 percent in December 2010. It was the lowest rate in three years, and the number of employed grew by 4,307 people, according to the state workforce department.

“We saw real gains in employment,” said Joey Von Nessen, an economist at the University of South Carolina. “That’s very positive for the state.”

Still, South Carolina’s rate was higher than the national rate, which stands at 8.5 percent. Marion County had the state’s highest rate at 17.9 percent, while Lexington County had the state’s lowest rate at 7 percent.

It could take another year, maybe two, at the least before the area is likely to return to the job levels before the recession, Von Nessen said.

“We fell a long way after the recession,” he said. “We have a long way to go to get back to those job levels.

“Slow and steady - that is the message for 2012. It’s just not as quick as anybody wants.”