Scott Says Florida's Unemployment Down 1.3 Percent in 2011

With a 1.3 percent growth in employment this year, Gov. Rick Scott announced in a conference call from Brazil, where he is leading a trade mission, that Florida is bucking the national trend in job creation.

Scott made the call to announce Floridas unemployment rate dropped for the first time in four months, from 10.7 percent in August to 10.6 percent.

I am even more pleased, and I think everybody would be, with our job creation numbers, Scott said. This year Florida has gained 110,300 private sector jobs, while shrinking the size of government. Thats a net gain of 23,300 jobs in September alone, and a total net gain of 92,400 jobs since January.

More significantly, Floridas September 2011 annual job growth percentage rate, which is 1.3 percent, outpaced the nation (1.1 percent) for the first time in three and a half years, since February 2007. So thats great news.

No one can take full credit for this. But Florida is on the right track thanks to the collaborative effort of the Florida legislature, who last session passed business tax cuts and shared my vision for making Florida the best state in the country to do business.

I told Gov. Perry that. Texas has been the winner. But it will not be long well be the winner.

I also want to thank (Attorney General) Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, city and county governments, who along with the state provide incentives that make it easier for people to do business in our great state so we can create jobs here, not in another country or not in another state.

Everybody in my administration has played a role in growing jobs. My goal as you know this year is to make sure all our sectors are focused on making it easier to do business, streamlining the permitting process, getting rid of regulations that are killing jobs. Looking at how we can be a better partner, make it easier to be a better state.

Most importantly we have to recognize all of the private companies who have been taking risks, putting up their own money to create jobs in Florida each and every day.

Florida is trending in the right direction, but there is a lot of work left to do. We still have a lot of work, but were going to continue the path were going down and have a lasting impact on changing the direction of this state.

This month I unveiled my job creation and economic growth agenda for the coming year. Im going to continue to prioritize our efforts to streamline regulations, provide tax relief, and work with the legislature and other state leaders to do what it takes to create the jobs needed to get our state back to work and make sure were the number one state for job creation. And as we all know we should be the number one state for job creation.

Scott is taking part in a 10-day trade mission in Sao Paulo with nearly 200 Florida business leaders.

He took no questions during the call.

Doug Darling, director of the new Department of Economic Opportunity, noted that there remains 977,000 Floridians eligible for unemployment.

We must continue our efforts of coordinated economic development to create jobs and ensure our workforce is skilled and ready to be matched with employment opportunities, Darling stated in a release.

Details on the September unemployment numbers will be released later today.