Flagler County’s unemployment rate is no longer worse than Belgium’s: After more than six years of crisis-level joblessness, the county’s unemployment rate in December fell by half a percentage point, to 7.6 percent (from 8.1 percent in November), matching a level last seen in April 2008, when the rate was rising rapidly.
For the year, Flagler’s unemployment rate improved by 1.1 percentage point. It’s still not enough to bump the county out of the second-worst place among Florida’s 67 counties, but designation no longer weighs as heavily as when it was paired with heavier unemployment, either.
Flagler’s improvements are part of a statewide and national brightening that’s seen the American unemployment rate fall to 5.6 percent last month, a rate Florida matched even as the number of people holding jobs declined by 4,000. The decline was the result of people dropping out of the workforce rather than because of job creation: 17,000 people dropped out of the workforce in November.
Flagler County’s better numbers in December are also clouded by the fact that they are not do to healthier job creation, but rather to a decreasing in the county’s labor force. The labor force shrank in Flagler by 297 (for a total labor force of 35,061). The county also lost 107 jobs over the month (that is, 107 people living in Flagler County lost jobs), and 190 more people were unemployed.
The figures look better when compared to a year ago: almost 1,000 people living in Flagler County have jobs compared to December 2013 even as the labor force has grown, albeit slowly, by 649 (one of the slowest growth years in decades) and the number of unemployed persons fell by 315.
The full report is below.
Florida Unemployment Report, December 2014
Lancer says
I always look at these statistics skeptically. Has the population of working aged adults grown or lessened in the last 5 years, the last 3 years?? Flagler county needs to focus on a high tech industry to bring in sustainable, good paying jobs. We need to utilize our wonderful location, weather, 95 corridor and location relative to ports.
Nationally:
The nations GDP is dependent on government spending, which is a crock stat too begin with…
Our country’s economy has experienced the longest recovery in our history…because of government policies that have produced massive debt and little positive results.
We tried to replicate the failures of FDR…without WW2 to bail us out and give us a direction.
We need to cut the federal government 10% across the board. When this is done, we need to not let the bureaucrats USE the fire dept, police dept, etc. as a lap dog! Everyone knows the government has areas that can be cut, but when its time to slash budgets these jerks always focus on an area that gets the most publicity. It’s ridiculous that they are allowed to follow the same game plan decade after decade. Ridiculous.
We need to lower federal spending by 25% the next 4 years and 50% in the next 10 years.
We need to restructure our poverty programs to provide education and direction (the recidivism rate of these programs is 60% and they are ABSOLUTELY fostering dependency).
We need to promote energy dependency.
We need to build two new refineries (we haven’t built one in 40 years).
We need to construct and invest in 5 massive nuclear power facilities.
We need to bolster and invest in our ports.
We need to compete internationally and help develop economies with win/ win partnerships and quit letting China take advantage unopposed.
We need to shut down several bases internationally.
We need to do away with the war on drugs. You could do 100% more good by devoting just 10% of the DEA’s current budget towards recovery programs.
We need to completely overhaul our income tax policies. Perhaps even look at going to a national retail sales tax.
We need to can the IRS and the Federal Dept. of Education (which does absolutely nothing. The states decide their own curriculum).
confidential says
Oh Yeah? unemployment fell …from the reality counters and that is why robberies are up! Lets get alert and ready for more FCSO deputies!