Scott 'Hopes' Floridians Continue to Build Private-Sector Jobs

Rick Scott declined to make a prediction about unemployment numbers for December, due Friday from the Department of Economic Opportunity.

With his next monthly "report card" looming, and despite receiving daily updates on the jobs placed by state workforce agencies, Scott would only say Thursday that he "hopes" Florida will continue its trend in having the unemployment percentage decrease while the number of private-sector jobs grows.

For the first 11 months, 134,800 private-sector jobs, net 120,000 jobs, Scott said, while speaking before about 70 members of the Florida Retail Federation at the Hotel Duval Thursday morning.

I hoped by the end of the year to add 150,000 private-sector jobs. We have a shot at doing that, that would be a big change from losing jobs for four years.

The net figure comes at the expense of cuts to state and local government jobs.

Scott, who ran on a jobs platform in 2010, calls the monthly unemployment numbers -- released the third Friday of each month --his report card.

The unemployment rate stood at 10 percent in November, with the data released Dec. 16. The mark was the lowest the state had seen since May 2009.

With the 10 percent rate, the state recorded 8,303,000 working out of a work force of 9,228,000.

In December 2010, with unemployment nearly 2 full points higher, the state had 7,193,900 Floridians working out of a potential work force of 9,245,000.