Gov. Rick Scott was encouraged by new job numbers released Friday, as 22,700 more Floridians got to work in February.
The official numbers from the Agency for Workforce Innovation show Floridas unemployment rate for February at 11.5 percent, a 0.4 percent drop from January. The data reveal the fifth month in a row of year-over-year job gains, but there are still about 1.07 million Floridians out of work.
"We still have over 1 million people out of work, so we've got to get back to work, Scott said Friday during a visit to Workforce Plus, a job placement agency in Tallahassee.
Scott was careful not to take credit for the numbers two months into his term, but did say that his policies, combined with Floridas natural advantages, has the state poised for significant job growth.
There's never one factor. If you travel the state -- and I travel pretty much every day -- you can see our state's getting back to work. We clearly are going to be the job creator in the country -- no income tax, right-to-work state, better beaches, better weather, hard-working people. We have a very hard-working work force in this state, Scott said.
Most of Floridas job gains came from the leisure and hospitality sector, which added 26,100 jobs over the month, as well as the education and health service, which saw an increase of 23,600 jobs. The biggest job loser was the construction industry, which shed another 15,800 jobs in February, and has lost about half of its jobs since the height of the real estate bubble in 2007.
Construction remains at the top of that list (of job losers) as it has throughout the recession, said AWI chief economist Rebecca Rust.
Those numbers highlight the problem facing Floridas workers, businesses and policymakers, as laid-off construction workers are having difficulty transitioning from labor-intensive positions to high-tech jobs that are creating most of the new jobs.
Workers laid off during the recession often need to develop new skills in order to adapt to the jobs being created. Workforce Plus CEO Kimberly Moore said thats where her agency comes in.
What weve had to engage in providing is additional training. Training to allow individuals to go into a different industry. It may not be the industry they were geared toward and in previously, Moore said.
Matching the skills of unemployed workers to available jobs is not only vital to reducing Floridas official unemployment figures, but it will also help reduce part of the states unemployment story that sometimes goes unnoticed -- underemployment.
Underemployment includes those who are working part-time that are still seeking full-time employment, as well as those in jobs that dont match their skills. When added to the unemployment rate, the rate of disaffected workers in Florida jumps to 19.7 percent, down from 20 percent in January.
One of Scotts campaign platforms -- helping small businesses grow -- could be the key to reaching his pledge to create 700,000 jobs in Florida.
Our focus is on small businesses. I wont say that it's shifted from the large businesses, large businesses still matter, but small businesses represent nearly 80 percent of the population of our local area. And adding additional support to those small businesses has put them in the posture to grow and to expand, thus creating jobs, Moore said.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
