COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina has lost more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs in the past month as the state’s economy continues to sour.

The tiny town of Whitmire took the latest and biggest blow. The town’s only major plant, owned by sock maker Renfro Corp., is closing at the end of January, leaving 570 workers without a job.

Company officials told the workers Tuesday afternoon. Word then spread quickly through the town of just over 1,500 people, said Michael Dillard, who owns Joe’s Market, the small grocery store his father opened 54 years ago on the main highway through town.

“It’s pretty much our only industry. Only place you can really work outside of a small business,” Dillard said Wednesday. “Everybody was a little shocked, but I think they expected it, too. I think it’s a lot different time than it used to be. Textiles, in general, they are pretty much gone.”

But it isn’t just textile plants closing in a state that had the nation’s fourth-highest unemployment rate in October at 8 percent. A Chester County plant that makes telephone cable will put 200 people out of work when it closes in March. Another 110 people at a North Charleston display cabinet and fixture plant will be looking for work by the end of February. On Monday, an Anderson County plant that makes carpet fibers announced it was closing in less than two months and letting 170 workers go.

The more than 1,000 jobs lost since Nov. 7 in South Carolina doesn’t include 400 workers laid off at Vought Aircraft in Charleston and 300 employees temporarily let go from ArcelorMittal Steel in Georgetown. Both plants won’t reopen until after the Christmas holidays.

Gov. Mark Sanford suspects unemployment rates will get worse. But he thinks the state will be spared somewhat because South Carolina still gets plenty of people moving in from northern states. Also, state officials are busy recruiting more companies to South Carolina “in part because of the low dollar and European possibilities.”

The announcement of just about every plant closing comes with a quote from company officials praising the employees soon to be out of work and blaming the poor economy. The sock plant announcement Tuesday in Whitmire was no different.

“This is a very difficult decision because of the number of dedicated and long service employees at Whitmire,” Renfro Vice President of Manufacturing Norman Smith said in a statement. “The overall economic downturn has decreased demand for our product.”

The Mount Airy, N.C., company has more than 5,200 employees with plants in Clinton, Fort Payne, Ala., and Cleveland, Tenn., as well as Mexico, India, Pakistan and China.

Whitmire Mayor Tim Carroll said about 230 of the plant’s employees lived in the area.

The mill used 40 percent of the water generated by the town’s treatment plant, and Carroll said the loss of that revenue means repairs to city streets and other maintenance will likely be delayed. Layoffs are also possible at the water plant.

But what hurts more is the job losses for people without a lot of high-tech skills, said Carroll, who already is asking Newberry County and the state to help them sell the building and find a new manufacturer.

The Renfro plant came to Whitmire’s rescue about two decades ago, staying open after the other big mill in the town closed. Dillard, who has lived in the town for all 56 of his years, said he can only hope there is another miracle on the horizon.

With his two daughters and a son grown and moved away, it’s just him and his wife to ride this one out.

“Back 30 or 40 years ago, Whitmire was a booming little town — 1,500 to 2,000 people worked in the mills, there was all kinds of stores and businesses open. You could get almost anything you needed here,” Dillard said. “I guess I’ll stay. It’s my dad’s store and there’s not a lot else I can do.”

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Associated Press writer Seanna Adcox contributed to this report.

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