1,000,000 plus unemployed in
Florida
FL Unemployment at 10.6% vs. 9.1% US
Columbia County, FL (Posted June 17, 2011 05:05 pm)
Counting the number of people that have lost unemployment benefits and fallen off the map, Florida has over 1 million folks unemployed at a rate just over 10.6%. The US unemployment rate has been below Florida's rate since February of 2008.
Rebecca Rust of AWI.
Over the past month, 23 Florida counties had an increase in their unemployment rate, 26 had a decline and 18 stayed the same. Columbia County's unemployment rate went up 1/10 of 1%.
This month the national gain in jobs was the smallest in eight months.
Nationally, over the past six months, employment is up by over 1 million jobs.
Florida has the second-highest unemployment rate of the 10 most populous states in America.. California has the highest unemployment rate at 11.7%.
The lowest unemployment rates and the only two states under 8% of the nation's most populous states are Pennsylvania at 7.4% and New York at 7.9%.
Out of all the states in the nation, the very lowest unemployment rate and the only one under 4% is North Dakota at 3.2%.
Florida - 4th highest in the nation
Florida's unemployment rate is the fourth highest of all states in the nation.
Over the past year Florida gained 24,900 jobs. This is the eighth highest of all states in the nation.
Texas leads the nation in job creation at 205,400.
Over the past year, 12 states continued to lose jobs, with Georgia leading the way with 22,600 job losses. AWI reports that the reason for this was that there was a major census center in Atlanta.
In Florida, leisure and hospitality led all industries in job creation, creating 45,100 jobs, due to food services and drinking places. The second industry with the highest gain was private education and health services up 24,500. AWI reported that this was due to ambulatory health care services, which includes doctors offices, out patients and medical labs.
The industries losing jobs over the past year had government leading the way, which is the first time government has led the list in job losses, but most of this was due to federal government job losses, because of the jobs lost during census time. State government is also down.
The construction industry is the second highest industry with job losses, down by 14,300 jobs. Of course, this does not include the folks that got paid in cash and were never counted at all in the unemployment figures.
Looking back, Florida's lowest unemployment rate was 3.3% in January and August of 2006. Florida's highest unemployment was 12% in December of 2010.
To read more of the latest facts, figures and charts for Florida, go here.
To compare Florida Counties, go here.
