(AP) -- South Carolina's unemployment rate dropped for the second month in a row in August, decreasing to 11.5 percent.

The Employment Security Commission said Friday it had also revised the state's July rate to 11.7 percent. It had been 11.8 percent, the first decline in more than a year and a half.

The commission says most of the 14,300 jobs the state gained last month were because of schools preparing for the new year.

Leisure and hospitality jobs were down by 2,700, and construction lost another 2,600 jobs.

The commission says this marks the first time since February 1997 that South Carolina's construction employment has dipped below 100,000.

Nationally, unemployment was 9.7 percent in August.

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