Horry County unemployment raises concerns

Horry County’s immediate economic future may not be as good as it once looked. The Coastal Workforce Center in Conway reported the county’s unemployment rate stands at 12.2 percent for October, up from September when it was 10.9 percent.
When the Grand Strand’s hospitality industry closes down during the off season months, it impacts the number of jobs that could be available, center employees said Friday.
“It’s not really good news, unfortunately,” said Mary Nell Smith, the center’s area director. “Traditionally, December is our toughest month and if we are 12.1 percent right now then we are going to be higher.”
“I just kind of wake up crying and go to bed crying,” said Tonya Johns, who lost her job as a social services director at a local assisted living facility earlier this week. “This is definitely a blow to my ego. I have to build myself back up again and then anything, anything — it doesn’t matter what it is right now — you do what you have to do.”
Johns said she had never been to an employment office before. She said she hopes her nursing degree helps her secure employment soon.
“I have a lot of experience in that respect, so I can fall back on that, but right now I’m not picky. I would do waitressing or retail,” she said.
Retail jobs, especially around this time of the year with the holiday season approaching fast, could be a temporary solution for those who are desperately looking for a job, Smith said.
“A lot of times you get people that get a little scared to take that, unfortunately, because they don’t want to mess up what they have going on or they’re afraid of stepping out there for some part-time work,” she said. “Our advice to people is to take work that you can find whether it’s part-time. You never know what it might lead to.”
The S.C. Employment Security Commission said 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.
“I don’t want to mislead anyone and say that the economy is fantastic because we are still losing jobs in a lot of industries here, but the important corner has been turned,” Coastal Carolina University economics professor Dr. Don Schunk said. “We are starting to see some improvements in our visitor spending.”