Florida Unemployment Rate Falls

You might want to crack open a bottle of celebratory wine for this, readers. If you can afford it.

The state's unemployment rate for April was 12 percent, .3 percent lower than March's rate of 12.3 percent, according to statistics released less than an hour ago from the Agency for Workforce Innovation. This is the first time state unemployment has declined in four years.

The state registered 7,196, 600 jobs by the end of April, but job loss continued to outnumber growth, as it has for awhile.

In more good news, the state's consumer confidence index rose by six points, from 171 to 177.

The nation's unemployment rate rose from 9.7 to 9.9 percent, but researchers say the nationhas made its biggest monthly gains in the past four years, with the number of unemployed growing by 290,000.