Drum roll, please: South Carolina has brought its jobless rate down more than any other state since the end of last year – from 12.4 percent to 10.8 percent. The Palmetto state has 17,000 more jobs now than it did then. The gains include jobs in professional and business services and in federal government. (But, like most of the other "most improved" states, South Carolina hasn't seen an unusually large share of Recovery Act money from Washington.)
Like Alabama and Michigan, South Carolina is a player in the auto industry and thus has benefited from the uptick in car sales nationwide.
The state didn't escape the challenges of the real estate bust. Places such as coastal resort areas were affected. But where South Carolina has made progress, some of the states hardest-hit by real estate troubles – Nevada, California, and Florida – didn't come close to making the "most improved" list.
"South Carolina has run a tighter fiscal ship for quite some time," compared to other states, Vitner adds. That may help explain why the state doesn't show a big recession-induced downsizing of state or local government jobs so far this year.
