Flagler County’s unemployment rate rose for the third straight month and hasn’t declined since March, reaching 5.4 percent in August, the highest unemployment rate since June 2021, when it was 5.4 percent. Palm Coast’s unemployment was also 5.4 percent in August, according to figures released by the state’s Commerce Department Friday.
The unemployment rate declined in the county even though the labor force declined a little, to just under 56,000. Employment declined by almost 300, while the ranks of the unemployed in the county rose to 3,022. The last time that many Flagler County residents were without a job goes back to five years, to September 2020, when the country was emerging from the Covid recession. But the county has added some 20,000 residents since, and the labor force has grown by about 12,000 since.
Still, the trend has been negative, with the county’s unemployment rate averaging 4.6 percent this year, compared to 4 percent last year, 3.6 percent in 2023, and 3.4 percent in 2022.
Florida’s unemployment rate also inched up, to 3.8 percent in August, after holding steady at 3.7 percent since April.
The August rate represented 424,000 Floridians qualified as unemployed, up 7,000 from July. The civilian labor force in August of 11.196 million was unchanged from a month earlier. The unemployment rate in August 2024 was 3.4 percent.
A person qualifies as unemployed as long as the person is collecting unemployment and abiding by the state’s rigorous rules to do so. The unemployment term is just 12 weeks, for checks that top off at $275 a week, resulting in the stingiest unemployment benefit in the country. Some states provide less money, but longer time spans.
The unemployment increase in Flagler County preceded the announcement by Boston Whaler, the county’s largest manufacturing employer, that it would be shutting down the plant off Colbert Lane over the next few months, and offering its 300 employees to work in Edgewater, in Volusia County. The unemployment figure will only reflect a loss if those employees opt to collect unemployment. Every employee who chooses to work in Edgewater but continues to live in Flagler County will be considered employed as far as Flagler County’s employment numbers are concerned. Those numbers don’t necessarily reflect jobs in Flagler County, but jobholders living in the county, including commuters and telecommuters.
Jimmy Heckman, the Department of Commerce’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research, said last month’s rate increase was tied to people searching for work after entering or reentering the labor force. But that doesn’t necessarily apply in Flagler County since the labor force declined.
“The number of people that say that they’re unemployed because they lost their jobs is actually down as a share of the number of unemployed people in the state,” Heckman said in a conference call with reporters–again, a condition that does not apply to Flagler County.
He said numbers indicate businesses are hiring at a slower rate.
“We don’t think that the rise in unemployment is a story of people actually losing their jobs,” Heckman said. “A rise in the unemployment rate might mean that it’s taking a slightly longer time for people who are entering the labor force to find a job.”
The report showed private-sector employment decreased by 4,200 jobs in August, after also decreasing in June and July.
Employment was up by 85,400 private-sector jobs from August 2024.
Friday’s report came after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday lowered its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point amid concerns about the health of the nation’s jobs market.
Florida saw a 3,600-job gain in August in employment in the construction industry, while manufacturing had a 1,700-job increase, according to the Department of Commerce report. The state, however, had decreases in the categories such as leisure and hospitality, which had a 5,500-job drop.
Across the state, the lowest unemployment rate in August remained in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area at 3.7 percent, up from 3.4 percent in July. Within that region, the rate in the Miami-Miami-Beach-Kendall area was at 2.9 percent.
The next-lowest August rate was 4.2 percent in the Crestview-Fort-Walton Beach-Destin metropolitan area, followed by the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area at 4.3 percent and the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region at 4.4 percent.
The Panama City-Panama City Beach area was at 4.5 percent. The Jacksonville area was at 4.6 percent. The Tallahassee, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent areas were at 4.7 percent. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Naples-Marco Island and North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota areas were at 4.8 percent.
Meanwhile, the Port St. Lucie area was at 5 percent, and the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach and Gainesville areas were at 5.1 percent.
The highest rate in the state was 7.6 percent in the metropolitan statistical area that includes The Villages and Wildwood. The region was at 7.1 percent in July.
The Homosassa Springs area was at 6.6 percent, the Sebring area was at 6.5 percent, the Punta Gorda and Sebastian-Vero Beach areas were at 5.6 percent. The Ocala area was at 5.5 percent and the Lakeland-Winter Haven region stood at 5.4 percent.
The statewide rate is seasonally adjusted, while the metro rates are not adjusted.
–FlaglerLive and Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
JimboXYZ says
[Do not use this site to spread disinformation. Thanks.–FL]
This is what happens when Biden-Harris & the Fauci quack coincide. It’s W. Bush 2001-2009 => Obama all over again. Same MO from Congressional Leadership, rampant inflation for fuel prices, property flipping, wars. And coincidentally, Fauci was the guy when Covid 1st showed up in 2002-2003. Theoretically, with the inflation that kept unemployment low, that’s still happening, how come the unemployment rates are going back up ? Corporate Greed & price gouging ! We’re heading toward another bailout economy for the 2028-2029 election year & shift change in the White House. This brought to the USA masses by the brightest minds of Ivy League economics. I predicted this unsustainable Delaware Lies would become this. Boston Whaler is shutting down operations for 300 more layoffs in 2026. And yet the local governments & corporations/employers still cling to the rampant inflations of Bidenomics. Get ready for paying for the biggest mistake of Biden-Harris being in power, the lies of a soft landing that we all paid for any Biden prosperity to crash hard. The worst part is, prices are going to have to crash for deflation. Interest rates are dropping, they have no choice but to lower them even more for the next reduction. And here we are in Alfinville, stuck with a Vision of 2050 that has saddled the county with $ 1/2 billion in debt that will take 5 years of water utility increases to pay for as the unemployment rate rises. These are the leaders, incompetent hacks that had no business being in power to make decisions. Thanks for tuning America again, how can we ever thank them enough ? We’ll all be able to play pickleball though ? I still can’t believe Bunnell approved the 6,100 new residentials ? Are they even paying attention over there ? Sad is the developers & now HBA are going to sue over higher impact fees ? So much that the recent article was responded to with this quote in a comment:
“Maybe stick to building your over priced homes and don’t worry about trying to stir the pot with the residence of Flagler so to speak. Greed isn’t a good luck on some people.”
https://flaglerlive.com/brunswick-boston-whaler/
“Ken Belshe is a principal with Sunbelt Land Management, the developer of Veranda Bay in Flagler Beach.”
I have no doubt that every developer in Flagler County is not sleeping well at nights as this unravels & unfolds. But they were at City Hall threatening to sue weren’t they ? When the money that was never there dries up and recession happens, all these projects will remain incomplete, large fields cleared for these new homes, no jobs for home buyers. And they want to change the City Charter too. Many of us lived thru W Bush, nobody wants to go thru that again ? But here it comes, brace yourselves to pay more, get less, consumer purchasing power to erode further. And the Titanic is about to sink. Thanks Biden-Harris for ruining the USA. I’m sure the next POTUS hopefuls will sell themselves off as Bush-Obama-like bailout heroes.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Budget will be approved tonight regardless of the high unemployment to cost each breathing citizen in Flagler County $3,167 budget for just the Sheriff Department income and expenses; $16,489 per person for the county to provide basic services for. Thus includes a big 11% increase to Waste Pro who collects our trash and garbage ( Kim Carney you would have known this for your $75,229 a year salary had you read any of the $329 ,792,206 budget Heidi Petito smiles about in her glamour shot).
Our taxes will be close to $4,000 and we paid $275,000 for our home when we bought it, The county does not maintain our roads, nor provide street lighting, nor landscaping, nor police patrol ( we pay extra) – we pay HOA dues of $1,188 on top !!! We get N O T H I N G from the county except disrespect, malfeasance ( my opinion) generated by negligence and blatant incompetence . If you watch the Utube of the September 19 Legislative meeting you can see Commissioner Richardson laughing as I was begging Senator Leek to sponsor something at the state level to curb the flight schools illegally flying over our fellow flagler Countians homes. She laughs but she will collect $75,229 in salary for the coming fiscal year plus another $64,018 in ‘benefits’……..
Flagler County has gone to hell twice over in a handbasket and we have to decide whether to sell our castle we took 23 years to create and move or just close our eyes like over 80% of the other people do and eat the politically contaminated dog food they dish out with smiles on their selfish me me me faces.
Joe D says
I think one important point to remember, for Florida State unemployment statistics, once you have “maxed out” on the unemployment benefits you can earn (only 12 weeks), YOU ARE NO LONGER COUNTED in the unemployment statistics!?!! Whether or not you have found a new job after your benefits end, you are not counted in the State of Florida unemployment numbers. How CONVENIENT for the State powers that be.
The REALITY of this is that the ACTUAL “unemployment rate” is surely HIGHER than the PUBLISHED unemployment rate, because, simply because you stopped qualifying for unemployment benefits, doesn’t mean you are employed!
The term is called LYING WITH STATISTICS! That was one of the courses I had to take when I completed my MS degree as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. The course was designed so that graduates could review published data ( studies/research projects/ polls) and determine HOW the results were determined. The goal was to be able to determine if statistics that were manipulated in some way, by the “researchers.”
It was a VERY INFORMATIVE course…it made me think critically before I just took a study at face value, just because someone PUBLISHED the information. VERY useful in today’s “It’s true because I SAID SO,” mentality.
Laurel says
Hey Jimboxyz: Just shut your eyes and dream of Trump’s promised land, and keep blaming Biden and Obama for the next three years! Everyone believes you! Trump’ll fix it. All he has to do is stop providing those statistics too.
Sarcasm, in case you don’t know.
Nowhere to work says
Hard to believe unemployment is up with all the jobs our local leaders have created within our county (not)
Dennis C Rathsam says
But we have plenty of empty house….
Helen says
How pathetic r cons blame Biden . Tarrifs ?,horrible policy after horrible policy. Republicans own this coming depression! Hell they did it on purpose to enrich the select few! Fascism doesn’t look very good. This is anti science and right wing propaganda that will kill people unnecessarily!
Winning? says
All this as republicans quickly remove social safety’s net and criminalize poverty and force price increases on literally everything !!
JimboXYZ says
When it comes to BLS labor reports restatement, this by it’s very definition of spreading disinformation, it’s not my numbers it’s their’s. 818K in 2024, 911K here in 2025. Yet inflation still rules the day. Connect those dots, they aren’t coincidental. Those 300 workers at Boston Whaler, this time when they’re laid off they will be dumped into the most unaffordable housing crisis America has ever faced. $ 1K rents are closer to $ 2K rents.
That’s not disinformation, it’s fact. I keep as accurate a score as possible with the disinformation we’re all fed. Every link is a credible source, Government & Media. I state the brutal truth. Analogy time ? A football team is 0-3 and loses 42-13, 77-3 every Saturday to get to 0-2, & plays a tighter game vs the same level of suck that team is ? Sparing those players feelings is a disservice to them, they suck and they know it, but that ‘s what they are, bottom feeders that probably need to go find something else to do, take a nap or go fishing/golfing instead of charade as a football team as what they do on their Saturdays. I can’t imagine being that bad (that they factually are) at anything & looking forward to playing football this upcoming Saturday ?
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/21/us-job-growth-revised-down-by-the-most-since-2009-why-this-time-is-different.html
Bush did it, Obama did it, Biden did it & now Trump’s doing it (perhaps even again if he did that from 2017-2021). Though I don’t think he had a reason to, he had Fauci, armed with Covid, laying off the entirety of the USA pretty much, 7.2 million climbed 15.9 million to 23.1 million non-essentials in April alone ? According to unemployment numbers, the rate was a record high 14.7%.
“The number of unemployed persons rose by 15.9 million to 23.1 million in April.”
https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/unemployment-rate-rises-to-record-high-14-point-7-percent-in-april-2020.htm
Billy B says
Why don’t they do what the convicted felon does? Just fire the person in charge of the jobs statistics and hire some boot licker to alter the outcome !!!!
Atwp says
Jimbo you act as though you are hiding from the truth. Dodge fired a lot of people from government jobs. I’d Biden and Obama responsible for Doge? It is interesting that in the state it seems like the unemployment rate is lower in Democratic regions. The Villages is a true Republican strong hold. What is happening Jimbo? The Villages has a high unemployment rate, one of the highest in the state. WOW!
FedUp says
Of course the counties unemployment is going to be high when there’s no business structure in place. This isn’t a national problem, it’s local, and the politician’s are at fault. Keep developing and building homes.
Joe D says
But….that’s EXACTLY what TRUMP DID…he fired the “messenger”…and SURPRISE….the next month the STATISTICS weren’t ANY BETTER under his newly appointed MINION!