COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- 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.
