By the Numbers is a monthly resource brought to you by the Florida Chamber Foundation via The Florida Scorecard. This resource has the latest employment, housing and consumer data for the Sunshine State at a quick glance. To receive these monthly updates on Florida’s economic progress and regress you can sign up on The Florida Scorecard homepage or e-mail jpuckett@FLFoundation.org.
For the first time in over two years Florida’s unemployment rate dropped out of double digits in the month of December. Registering an unemployment rate of 9.9% in December, Florida remains above the national unemployment rate average of 8.5%; however Florida’s economy is adding jobs back faster than anticipated in prior forecasts.
Florida’s unemployment rate continued its gradual decline, reaching an even 10 percent in November. With the economy showing signs of improvement, Florida’s annual job growth rate has been positive for the past 14 months and the unemployment rate has dropped 1.9 percent from a year ago.
Florida’s employment trends continued to improve in October with an employment gain of 9,500 jobs, in addition to Florida experiencing the thirteenth consecutive month of positive year over job growth.
The employment situation in Florida is slowly improving as another 23,300 jobs were added to the economy in September and a total of 93,500 jobs were created since the beginning of 2011. Despite the recent turbulence in consumer confidence, consumers are more active than they were a year ago as retail sales in the U.S. edged up 7.9%, year over.
The national and state unemployment rates remained stagnant last month with Florida registering the third highest unemployment rate among the ten most populous states. Florida added 9,900 private sector jobs however, and reported positive job creation of 71,600 since the beginning of 2011.
The trend of employment growth in Florida took a step backward in July, with the state losing a reported 22,100 jobs. Loss of government and construction jobs were the primary contributor to the month over decline in employment level, and Florida’s overall unemployment rate still remains uncomfortably higher than the national average.
Florida’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in June at 10.6%, while the national unemployment rate inched up to 9.2%. Analysis of the June’s unemployment figures by industry show positive movement among Florida’s traditional economic engines related to transactions in Real Estate and Tourism.
In May, Florida posted the highest level of job creation of any state, with 28,000 jobs added back to the Florida economy. Florida’s unemployment rate also dropped for the fifth consecutive month to a level of 10.6%.
Florida’s Agency for Workforce Innovation announced the unemployment rate dropped to 10.8 percent in April, reaching a level not seen since November 2009 and fostering hope that a demonstrable jobs recovery is finally under way.
March employment figures grew in a positive direction for both Florida and the United States, although at 11.1%, Florida is still experiencing an unemployment rate that is 2.3% higher than the national average. Overall five industry categories posted year over job growth in Florida with the Leisure and Hospitality industry leading the state with an estimated 35,300 job gains since last year.
