Florida's Unemployment Grows

More bad news on the employment front. The U.S. Department of Labors Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation came out with new numbers today. Floridas unemployment rate was 11.9 percent for January, up from 11.7 percent in December. This matches the unemployment rate in May 1975 as the highest unemployment in Floridas history.

Florida continues to drag behind the nation in terms of unemployment as the national average is 9.7 percent.

Over the last year, Florida has lost 90,700 construction jobs (a decline of 20.4 percent of the total number of employees in that field); 56,600 trade, transportation, and utilities jobs; 44,900 professional and business services jobs; 42,200 manufacturing jobs; 39,700 leisure and hospitality jobs 27,800 financial activates jobs; 13,700 jobs in information; and 2,500 public sector jobs.

The only areas seeing job growth in Florida are health services with 19,500 new jobs and private education with 4,100 new jobs.

Legislative Counsel for the Florida Chamber of Commerce Adam Babington said, Businesses are doing what they need to do to survive.

Mulling over solutions for the unemployment crisis, Babington said, Florida has to ensure that taxes stay low and that government is not part of the problem.