News and Press Releases for August 2006

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8/18/2006

Gov. Sanford Issues Statement on Unemployment Rate

Columbia, S.C. - Governor Mark Sanford today issued the following statement on South Carolina's unemployment rate dropping half a percentage point to 6.2 percent:

"While today's news is certainly welcome, as we've said a number of times before you have to look beyond the unemployment rate to get a full picture of what's really going on with respect to the economy," Gov. Sanford said. "There are over 124,000 more South Carolinians working now than there were in 2002, and this administration continues to lead all others in job growth since the creation of the Department of Commerce. There are now more people working in South Carolina than ever before, but in order to continue this pace of job creation we have to continue working toward reining in government growth, lowering the overall tax burden and improving business soil conditions with changes like workers comp reform."

In Wachovia Senior Economist Mark Vitner's most recent Regional Economic Review, it was reported that South Carolina's Gross State Product grew at 6.3 percent in the second quarter of 2006 - the fastest rate of growth in the Southeast, the fifth-fastest in the nation, and more than twice as fast as the national rate of 2.5 percent growth.

Commenting on the South Carolina data, Vitner went on to say, "Based on these numbers there's no question the South Carolina economy is booming."

The Wachovia report was released one week after the state's Board of Economic Advisors reported that South Carolina could expect to see an additional $100 million in tax collections in the coming year, based largely on the continuing growth in the state's economy.