Virtually no jobs were created in the state in November and 274 jobs were lost in Flagler as the unemployment rate at both levels rose again sharply in November–to 16.6 percent in Flagler, where it was last March, and 12 percent in the state. The highest unemployment rate Florida hit during this Great Recession was 12.3 percent, in march this year. Some 1.11 million Floridians are out of work.
Unemployment’s resumed climb should be temporary, however: with congressional passage of a massive new package of tax cuts that include hundreds of billions of dollars in new economic stimulus (as unemployment compensation and the equivalent of a $1,000 to $2,000 per worker break in payroll taxes), and recent indications of the strongest consumer spending across the country in two years, Florida may soon see the last of its double-digit unemployment rate. The climb out of deep unemployment is not likely to be quick, particularly in counties severely hit by foreclosures and extraordinarily high unemployment. Among those: Flagler.
Click On:
- The Complete November Jobs Report for Florida
- US Unemployment in November Rises to 9.8% as Job Creation Again Declines to Just 39,000
- US Unemployment, October: Private Sector Leads Surge as Economy Adds 151,000 Jobs; Unemployment Stuck at 9.6%
- Record 43.6 Million in Poverty; Record 50.7 Million Uninsured; Only Elderly Thrive
- Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights: For Workers
- Where and how to file for unemployment
The labor force in Flagler, which had been declining, rose modestly, by 41 workers between October and November, but that’s still 221 workers fewer than a year ago. Inaccurate rankings aside, Census Bureau figures released this week point to a significant decline in population in Flagler County and Palm Coast in the last few years.
“The November unemployment rate reflects the challenges our state is facing as we slowly emerge from the national recession. Knowing that this is an uncertain time for many Florida families, our agency has been closely monitoring the discussion in Congress on an additional extension of federally funded unemployment benefits. With passage of the legislation last night, we are prepared to immediately begin processing payments as soon as the president signs the bill,” said Cynthia R. Lorenzo, the state’s labor department director, in a prepared statement. “We strongly encourage job seekers to regularly visit www.employflorida.com, the state’s online job bank, for continuously updated employment opportunities, resume assistance and access to training and education programs.”
At midnight (between Thursday and Friday), the U.S. House of Representatives voted 277-148 to approve an $801 billion package that extends the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts for two more years–including for the rich and the superrich–and adds more tax breaks for working Americans, including a decline to 4 percent in the Social Security payroll tax. Included in the package is a $57 billion ext6ension of unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. That extension is good for 13 months.
Some 7.2 million Floridians have jobs out of a population of 18 million. There’s been a job increase of just 36,200 in the last 12 months–usually a single month’s job increase in a normal economy.
The industry gaining the most jobs over the past 12 months is private education and health services (28,900 jobs, +2.7 percent). Leisure and hospitality gained 21,400 jobs, professional and business services gained 10,100. Industries losing jobs over the year include construction, with a loss of 12,900 jobs, or 3.6 percent, manufacturing (9,200 jobs) financial activities (8,100 jobs lost), government (7,900 jobs lost) and information (5,500 jobs lost).
Hendry County again had the highest unemployment rate, at 17.9 percent, followed by Flagler’s 16.6 percent, Hernando and St. Lucie counties at 15.2 percent, and
Marion County at 14.6 percent. Hendry County is a small, agricultural county. In terms of metropolitan areas, the Palm Coast-Flagler County area is still the state’s leader in unemployment.
Here’s how those metropolitan areas’ unemployment rates ranked in November:
1. Palm Coast MSA 16.6 %
2. Ocala MSA 14.6
3. Sebastian-Vero Beach MSA 14.5
4. Port St. Lucie MSA 14.3
5. Cape Coral-Ft. Myers MSA 13.3
6. Lakeland-Winter Haven MSA 13.3
7. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall MD 13.0
8. Punta Gorda MSA 12.9
9. Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach MSA 12.8
10. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA 12.6
11. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville MSA 12.6
12. Naples-Marco Island MSA 12.4
13. North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota MSA 12.3
14. West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach MD 12.3
Florida 12.2
15. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Beach MSA 12.1
16. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA 11.9
17. Panama City-Lynn Haven-Panama City Beach MSA 11.6
18. Jacksonville MSA 11.6
19. Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent MSA 11.1
20. Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach MD 10.8
United States 9.3
21. Tallahassee MSA 9.0
22. Gainesville MSA 8.7
23. Crestview-Ft. Walton Beach-Destin MSA 8.7
lawabidingcitizen says
Whistling past the graveyard. Nobody with any business acumen will hire new employees or open a new business until the socialists are out completely. Markets need stability, not a bunch of amateurs borrowing money for giveaways. You can’t spend your way to prosperity especially if you’re spending other people’s money (OPM).
DLF says
Well he has been in office for just about two years, thank the Lord it has not been longer or things would be in a condition we could not live with. Remember what Truman said the buck stop here, would someone remind obama about that.
The Truth says
Why haven’t the Republican’s fixed this damn economy yet? I thought they were supposed to fix it by now?
PC MAN says
Things will be different soon, there’s going to be a new Weeper of the House, I mean Speaker of the House. I get all choked up thinking about that.
Hey you teabaggers, Mr. Obama will have 2 terms so sit back and relax.
JMILLER@YAHOO.COM says
Socializing the economy & continuing unemployment is the only way he knows to fix anything, He continues to put EVERYTHING in front of finding ways to create new jobs
JMILLER@YAHOO.COM says
Just wait until the new round of layoffs at Palm Coast Data hits in a few weeks…the figure will continue to go up!!!
True Art says
Obama isn’t to blame here. You can fix something in two year that took 8 year to screw up. It’s a shame that Flagler County can’t attract businesses that actually pay a living wage. It’s great to have so many restaurants and stores that pay minimum wage that way people can work 2 or 3 jobs to pay outrageous price for housing in Palm Coast. Even if any of the supposed high paying companies come into palm coast they will have to hire people from outside the area because all of the people who could fill those jobs have left the area and all that’s left are unskilled guidos and bubbas. And anyone that could fill those jobs wouldn’t be dumb enough toove to theatre with the pathetic, corrupt and narrow minded officials in the county, city and school offices.
Anonymous says
Who cares about the unemployment rates, Democrats keep telling us that unemployment benefits for the next 3 years will stimulate the economy. Sit back and relax,there is nothing to worry about . We have OBAMA
The Truth says
Anonymous: Did you forget who was in office for 8 years who led up to this disaster? I’m sick of everyone complaining about Obama expecting him to just flip a switch. No matter what he does he’s wrong in the Republican’s eyes. When Bush was in office, it was excuse after excuse and he had 8 YEARS. Obama was criticized his first day for not turning the economy around. Get over yourselves.
wsh302 says
truth is right, this has been brewing for years prior to obama, you cannot blame one man.
DLF says
No one expects the Great One to fix everything in two years, but we do expect to see some improvement in two years. Which anyone with have a brain could understand,but that may rule out half the people who voted for him. When are the supports of the Great One going to face the facts that he is in charge and the buck stops there. I do feel good he is of on another vacation, at least Bush only went to Texas and stayed at his own house, the Great one must take a vacation that costs a hundred thousands, go figiure.
Gervais says
Are the Republicans known for balancing the budget? Are Republicans known for “shrinking” government? Really? I ask this, not just sarcastically, but also honestly. Empirically speaking, Republicans have done none of this. They talk a strong game when not in power to score points but when in the driver’s seat, they start wars, run up deficits, bankrupt Social security, pervert the constitution, pass new laws which favor the rich, and bring new meaning to the word “corruption” just to scrape the tip of the iceberg…sorta like what Dems have been accused of by them (minus the small detail of the multiple wars….but hey, didn’t hear much about the cost of that this time around, huh?). Voting for the GOP is like a massage without a happy ending, it’s just not worth it.
Anonymous says
Why do we have the highest unemployment of the last decades in Flagler County and the nation?..Very simple, because when we go shopping all is Made in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Shri Lanka, Turkey etc etc and some items in *Canada or * Mexico that, as being our next door neighbors, is strategically less financially undermining as they both buy from us ten times more than any of the above mentioned Asian countries together.
Since 2001 over 47,000 factories have relocated overseas taking along the jobs of millions of Americans. The ridiculous excuses are : A) our government tax those corporations too high, B) our workers are unskilled, lazy and too expensive as they have medical and other benefits to be paid for and are mostly unionized and C) all these makes their products unable to compete on our USA and world markets!
To A, B and C the bare reality reply should be A) our government not only do not tax them too much to the contrary gives them tax incentives and breaks so they can use those Americans hard earned tax payers funds to open factories overseas where also they do not have our government monitoring and preventing the illegal pollution that many contaminate that environment with . B) they open factories overseas because they can profit from *slavery wages like of about $140/month in China to stand in front of an assembly line 40/hours a week, as reported. Does not matter the skills of the worker then and that shows in the quality of the products we only have available to buy. Slavery is very profitable. C) Our Made in the USA products will be able to compete in prices if were not subject to Asian, especially Chinese price dumping, in our domestic market. All with our elected politicians blessings. Also if these corporations greed will not be the driving force, to take our jobs elsewhere. Tax them when they bring their stuff back to sell to us and outsourcing will die.
This will all be swiftly resolved by imposing import tariffs/taxes to all that competes with our domestic manufacturing just like every other country in the world does! Utilize that huge income to reward with tax breaks and tax incentives only those corporations bringing their outsource manufacturing and jobs back to our USA and bringing by doing so our millions of jobs back! We can produce all what we consume and we are the largest consumer market in the world…not by the greater millions that we are, but by being able to earn enough decent wages to pay for the goods we need to buy! That is why we are being drowned in imports…but our buying power is quickly disappearing along with our jobs!
Our politicians in both parties are too concerned to upset China as we owe them billions in government loans and also to upset the greed of the corporate world….why? if we bring our jobs back and also propel our exports we will pay that debt overnight! Every one of us, child woman and man in our country will be $40,000 richer and not in debt. The corporate greed will be brought back be force to a reality revenue, just like it used to be.
As we unfortunately don’t know if Congress will ever pass a bill imposing tariff on imports then we may need to all pull together starting a peaceful battle just by trying to buy Made in the USA only in as much as possible….I see already that trend in our highways the brand new GM’s and Ford’s kudos to them. What about we try harder in the rest of all electronics clothing and all we need to buy? If those items are not available Made in the USA write the manufacturer and tell them you will buy them when they will make them here. After all, what is good about having all these cheap and *doubtful quality Asian merchandise available when we do not even have the jobs to be able to afford those?
*http://www.suite101.com/content/canadas-top-exports-imports-a25174
*http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/mexico/export-import.htm
*lhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2010/12/21/toyota-to-pay-32m-in-penalties-over.html?ana=yfcpc
*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/07/foxconn-suicide-factory-r_n_602870.html