Florida Unemployment at 8.6 Percent; Several Counties Over 10 Percent

Unemployment jumped to 8.6 percent in Florida in January, the state reported Friday, putting it higher than the national rate and approaching highs not seen since 1992. Most of the loss is blamed on declines in the construction sector.

The Agency for Workforce Innovation said Florida has about 800,000 people seeking work out of a labor force of nearly 9.3 million. The rate is up 3.6 percentage points from where it was in January 2008, 1 percentage point higher than it was in December, and outpacing the national 7.6 percent jobless rate.

{sidebar id=1}Florida hasn't seen joblessness like this since September 1992, just before the election of Bill Clinton to the presidency, when unemployment peaked at 8.9 percent. In 1976, unemployment in Florida approached 10 percent, and was almost 12 percent in May 1975, although a different methodology was used to calculate it back then.

The highest January unemployment was reported in Flagler County, where 14.2 percent of the work force was out of a job.

Several counties had double-digit unemployment rates in January, led by Flagler, Hernando, Hamilton and St. Lucie Counties, all over 12 percent.

Florida’s total nonagricultural employment in January 2009 was 7,557,700, representing a job loss of 355,700, from the same month a year earlier. That year-over-year job loss continues a trend of declines that goes back to August 2007, AWI said.

The decline is largely due to a huge drop off in construction, AWI figures show. The homebuilding sector has lost more than 100,000 jobs since the beginning of 2008, a drop of about 18 percent, and construction-related job losses accounted for 26 percent of the job losses in the state.

Few sectors were up in January, with leisure and hospitality jobs – another Florida staple – off just under 4 percent and manufacturing jobs down 8 percent.

The bright spots: the education and health care sectors gained more than 23,000 jobs, and government jobs increased by about 4,100 jobs.

The lowest unemployment rates in January were in Liberty County at 5.5 percent and Alachua, Monroe and Leon Counties, which were all under 6 percent.

AWI Interim Director Cynthia Lorenzo said the state, with federal help, was trying to do what it could to reverse the growth in joblessness and to get benefits out quickly to those out of work.

“We are working diligently to ensure federal stimulus funds are distributed quickly to have significant impact on increasing benefits and enhancing our services to Floridians,” Lorenzo said.

This article originally published on March 9, 2009.

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