Unemployment figures for August due out Friday for SC & NC

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A month after South Carolina’s
unemployment posted its first decline in more than a year and a
half, one expert says he expects the jobless rate to start going
back up.
    Unemployment numbers for August are expected to be released
Friday. In July, South Carolina reached 11.8 percent unemployment,
well above the national average of 9.4 percent, and rated
sixth-highest in the country.
    Coastal Carolina University economist Don Schunk says the
state’s rate could top 12 percent for August. But Schunk also says
that uptick is due in part to people who had quit looking for work
now resuming their searches.
    He says he thinks South Carolina’s jobless rate could keep going
up for at least another year.

    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Economists from Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke on down have said the economy has probably already
turned around, but unemployment is likely to worsen for months to
come.
    North Carolina job-seekers will get a measure of the data that
means the most to them on Friday, when the Employment Security
Commission announces the statewide unemployment rate for August.
    Unemployment in North Carolina has been above the previous
historic high for six straight months as of July and hovered around
11 percent since May.
    A prominent economic forecaster said this week the state’s
employment picture won’t improve until next year. UNC Charlotte
economics professor John Connaughton predicts
unemployment will reach 11.2 percent by year’s end