NEWBERRY — Newberry County is now boasting one of the lowest unemployment records in the state.

In statistics released this week, Newberry County is ranked ninth in counties with the lowest unemployment rate.

In September the state’s unemployment rate decreased to 9.1 percent from 9.6 percent in August.

Newberry County had a significant decrease from 8.9 percent to 7.5 percent. A year ago the county had an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent

Over the month, the number of unemployed people in the state dropped by 10,738 to 194,253.

The September 2012 unemployment rates in the state estimate was 1.1 percentage points lower than the year-ago rate of 10.2 percent. The estimated number of employed people increased by 13,329 to 1,940,026 in September, and the labor force climbed by an estimated 2,591 people to 2,134,279.

Nationally, the unemployment rate decreased from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September.

Employment increased 873,000 people. Of those newly employed, an estimated 582,000 went to work in part-time jobs for economic reasons.

South Carolina’s non-seasonally adjusted non agricultural employment was estimated at 1,862,600, an increase of 6,400 over the month. Since September 2011, the number of jobs in the state was up 30,000 (about 1.6 percent). Nationally, the number of jobs was up approximately 1.4 percent from a year ago.