Gov. Rick Scott in his re-election campaign has sought to portray Florida’s economy as singularly powered by job creation, and to take credit for that job creation. The numbers tell a different story. Florida’s unemployment rate has closely tracked the national rate, exceeding it for a few years at the height of the Great Recession, then then paralleling it since late 2012. As with the national economy, Florida’s economy has created jobs, but at a slower pace than in previous recoveries.
Two weeks ago the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the August unemployment rate dropped by a mere decimal point, to 6.1 percent. Today, Florida’s labor department announced that the state’s unemployment rate ticked up by a decimal point, to 6.3 percent. It’s the first time since early 2013 that Florida’s rate has been larger than the national rate by more more than a decimal point.
The number of unemployed Floridians rose by 4,000, to 602,000, and the number of Floridians with jobs fell by 6,000. Despite those figures, Scott found a way to tout the August unemployment figures. “Today we have some great news for Florida families,” he said Friday. “In the month of August the private sector added over 23,000 jobs. That means since the day I took office, the private sector has added over 643,000 jobs.” (The private sector gains were not enough to overcome the net decline in jobs.)
Charlie Crist, the Democratic candidate for governor, immediately issued a statement of his own criticizing Scott’s policies. “The latest jobs report and recent reports on Florida falling behind the rest of the nation in income demonstrate the reality of Rick Scott’s high cost, low wage economy,” Crist said in the release.
The News Service of Florida reports that “Industries helping drive Florida’s gains in the past year have been tied to food and beverage stores, employment services, ambulatory health-care services, insurance carriers, fabricated metal product manufacturing, telecommunications and local government, according to the Department of Economic Opportunity. The U.S. Census Bureau released figures Thursday indicating that one in five Floridians works in either education or health care, while another fifth were in service-related jobs. Meanwhile, one out of every 7.5 Florida workers is in retail, a figure that ties Arkansas for the highest in the nation.”
In Flagler County, the unemployment rate went up also by a decimal point, to 9.5 percent. The rate had fallen as low as 8.3 percent in April.
While the number of unemployed people in Flagler rose by just 21, to 3,404 people, the number of people with jobs fell by 207, and the labor force, an indicator of local economic vitality, fell by 186 after rising in previous months. But the labor force remains higher than it was a year ago, by more than 800 workers, as do the number of people with jobs–by 1,119–suggesting that the long-term trends are still brighter.
Flagler County, however, stubbornly is holding on to its distinction as the county with the second-worst unemployment rate in the state, after Hendry County, and the Palm Coast metropolitan area still tops the state’s metropolitan areas in that category. Monroe County’s 3.9 unemployment rate is the healthiest in the state, followed by Walon at 4 percent and Okaloosa at 4.9 percent.
Several industries added jobs modestly in August, including construction, manufacturing, information technology and administrative and waste services. Job losers included educational services, leisure and hospitality, real estate, state and local government.
Florida Unemployment, August 2014
rickg says
How could voters in Flagler and Volusia vote for this Governor??? This guy is all about the tax breaks for business but the businesses the he coddles do not expand their work force… Enough of this baloney… Let’s get back to the Florida in the 80s and early 90s where job growth was prominent and Democrats controlled at least some of the government.
Percy's mother says
It’s not a state problem. It’s a national problem. It has nothing to do with Scott coddling business owners. It has to do with fiscal policies at the top . . . that means the federal government. . . that means the increased taxes and increased rules and regulations that all businesses must adhere to . . . which costs money . . . which business owners don’t have because they’re paying to institute all the new rules and regulations.
Cypress Grand says
“Careering into the August primary, Gov. Rick Scott’s promise to create more than 700,000 jobs in seven years has either suffered a hiccup or continues unabated, depending on your point of view.
July jobs numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show Florida lost 1,600 jobs last month — or gained 2,100, if you ask Scott. He has consistently ignored losses in government employment and touted private sector growth. The state has lost 25,400 government jobs during Scott’s term, U.S. Labor Department economist Timothy Ewing told PolitiFact Florida.”
Rickg, you are so right – how can voters in Flagler and Volusia or anywhere else in Florida afford to vote Scott back in as Governor.
marty says
“It has nothing to do with Scott coddling business owners. It has to do with fiscal policies at the top . . . that means the federal government. . . that means the increased taxes and increased rules and regulations that all businesses must adhere to . . . which costs money . . . which business owners don’t have because they’re paying to institute all the new rules and regulations.”
Please….learn some facts – Business profits are at all time highs…the stock market at all time highs…CEO salaries at all time highs…taxes lower than they have been in years….deficit lower than in years…..
FOX News talking points do not substitute for reality!…Look at Kansas – EVERY WET DREAM conservatives have ever had – cutting corporate taxes, eliminating regulations, cutting spending….EVERY ONE OF THESE has been put in place by Gov. Brownback and his cronies…and the state is now such a disaster that Republican officeholders are supporting his Democratic challenger.
We’ve had since the 80’s to see the results of the right-wing agenda- all the promises of shared prosperity have been shown in the real world to be FALSE. Middle class income is now lower (inflation adjusted) than in the 70’s….
When will people stop listening to – and voting for – these Republican idiots?