The unemployment rates continued to increase in every county in June.

Marlboro County continued to have the highest rate in the state at 7.1%. The rate was 6.6% in May.

Bamberg County was second at 6.6%. Lexington and Charleston counties had the lowest rates at 2.9%.

The state unemployment rate decreased slightly to 3.2%.

Other unemployment rates in the Pee Dee region saw increases with Florence County going from 3.1 to 3.4%; Chesterfield County from 3.4 to 3.8; Darlington County from 3.4 to 3.9%; Dillon County from 4.7 to 5.0%; Williamsburg County from 4.8 to 5.5%; and Marion County from 5.2 to 5.5%.

Employment and Workforce Executive Director Dan Ellzey said employment was up in the state with more than 4,000 people working since last month.

“The number of people unemployed is down by approximately 1,000 to 78,101, with the unemployment rate ticking down to 3.2%. This puts the state within three-tenths of a percentage point of the pre-pandemic figure of 2.9% in February of 2020 and significantly lower than the 11.6% rate in April of 2020,” said Ellzey.

He added the state’s labor force has continued to grow with it up to 2,401,251, approximately 1,300 over May 2022.

“The Labor Force Participation Task Force, formed in March of this year, to explore the deficit of participants in the workforce compared to the surplus of jobs, has been busy,” Ellzey said.

To date, the task force has met three times, completed an initial analysis, started mining additional data, and has begun working with vendors to gather more information.

Ellzey said the goal is for the task force to analyze what is affecting South Carolina’s workforce, how labor force participation can be increased, and help us understand whether this should be a statewide or county-by-county effort.

In June 2021, Marlboro County had an unemployment rate of 8.4%.