South Carolina endures a year-after-year job deficit

Image by Ken Hawkins/TheDigitelImage by 20090603-jobs.jpg Sanford's long run of unemployment: Red areas show when South Carolina had above-the-national-average unemployment, and blue when we fared better. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Charleston City Paper's Greg Hambrick has put together an excellent piece charting the progress of South Carolina's unemployment over the last decade and, more precisely, the term of Governor Mark Sanford.

Read more stories on this subject in our unemployment topic page.The governor has long promoted the idea that less taxation and less government spending would create a healthier state economy and more jobs (see: stimulus package).

But whether it's because the Legislature has only allowed Sanfrod's ideas to be half implemented, or Sanford's ideas are just bad; South Carolina has only seen it's unemployment rate get higher and higher relative to the national average.

And that's where Hambrick's piece comes in, he does a good job of charting that journey and the political battles along the way.

Go take a read.

As for why the concept of less taxation and government spending hasn't worked, it's not addressed in Hambrick's piece. But John Warner over at "Swamp Fox" put together a piece back in April on how South Carolina is relying on an outmoded method to attract jobs by going after theĀ disappearingĀ big employers instead of empowering its citizens to be their own employers.

Read that here.