On Friday, Gov. Rick Scott announced the state unemployment dipped down to 5.3 percent for August as more than 20,000 private-sector jobs were added across the state.
The current rate is the lowest Florida has seen since February 2008 when it stood at 5.2 percent. In July, the rate stood at 5.4 percent. In the past year, the rate has dropped 0.6 percent. Since Scott took office at the start of 2011, the unemployment rate has dropped almost 5.5 percent. Florida continues to remain behind the national rate which stood at 5.1 percent in August.
Scott made the announcement in Boca Raton at the headquarters of ADT which employs more than 3,000 Floridians.
“We are excited to announce that Florida businesses added more than 20,000 new private-sector jobs last month and our unemployment rate has been cut in half over the last four and a half years," Scott said on Friday. “We want Florida to be the first in the nation for jobs and with more than 940,000 private-sector jobs added since December 2010, we are well on our way to reaching that goal.”
Over the past year, the leisure and hospitality industry has led the way in job growth, creating 55,600 new jobs as Florida experiences record-breaking tourism. The trade, transportation and utilities sector has seen 48,300 new jobs added in the Sunshine State over the last year. The only sector seeing major job loss has been the information industry which has lost 1,000 jobs in Florida over the past year.
Monroe County continues to lead the state with the lowest unemployment rate at 3.7 percent. St. Johns County, a growing area in Northeast Florida, was next with 4 percent followed by Franklin County at 4.3 percent and Okaloosa County at 4.5 percent.
Hendry County was the only county with double-digit unemployment at 12.2 percent. Hardee County had the second highest rate at 9 percent followed by Glades County with 7.9 percent and Highland County with 7.8 percent.
The Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area has seen the most jobs growth over the past year with 42,100 new jobs followed by the Tampa Bay area with 32,900 added jobs.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
