Little Change In Volusia & Flagler Unemployment Rate

Daytona Beach, FL - Despite a virtual flatline in the local unemployment rate, Florida Governor Rick Scott will exit the governor’s mansion proclaiming a statewide unemployment rate that is nearly eight percentage points lower than when he moved in. The state Department of Economic Opportunity released its final economic report of this year today (December 21st), with Volusia County's adjusted rate at 3.2% and Flagler's at 3.6% for November. December's report will be released after the New Year. Volusia's rate - which is tied for 32nd highest in the Sunshine State with Columbia, Miami-Dade and Suwannee counties - is the same as it was in October but 0.8% lower than it was in November 2017. Flagler's rate went up 0.1% compared to October, but it is nearly a full point better than the 4.3% posted the November prior. It's currently tied for 19th highest with Glades, Indian River and Liberty counties.

The employment report for November 2018 has been released. The unemployment rate was 3.3%, which is 0.8% lower than this time last year. pic.twitter.com/COMUBQ5tho

— CareerSource FV (@CareerSourceFV) December 21, 2018

Florida’s estimated jobless rate was 3.3% in November, down from 3.4% a month earlier. The state figure, which is below the nation’s 3.7% jobless rate, represents 335,000 Floridians qualifying as being unemployed from a labor force of 10.26 million. When Scott was sworn into the governor’s office in January 2011, the state’s jobless mark stood at 11.1%. The national mark at the time as Florida and the rest of the country recovered from a deep recession was 9.4%. Scott, who had never held public office, pinned his 2010 gubernatorial campaign on creating jobs, using the theme, “Let’s Get To Work.” His tenure in office also coincided with broader national job growth. “Being governor is the best job in the world, and I am excited about the economic success that Florida has been able to achieve over the past eight years,” Scott, who will move to the U.S. Senate in January, said in a prepared statement Friday. The state’s peak unemployment from the recession was 11.3% in January 2010, three months before Scott opened a campaign account to run for governor. His platform included a seven-step economic program that “over a 7-year period will have a positive economic impact and create over 700,000 jobs for the state of Florida." The target was at one time "on top of what normal growth would be." On Friday, the governor’s office said Florida businesses have created more than 1.67 million private-sector jobs since December 2010, with the state’s employment growth rate outpacing the nation in 79 of the past 80 months. The outlier month was September 2017, when Hurricane Irma swept through the state. The latest numbers from the Department of Economic Opportunity - based on separate surveys of households and employers - were driven by an increase in leisure and hospitality jobs, up 53,200 over the past year. Next highest were education and health services jobs (up 50,700 positions), followed by professional and business services (45,400) and construction (32,900). Government jobs, mostly at the local level, fell by 9,600 in the same period. Across the state, Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys, had the lowest jobless mark in November, 2.4%, followed by St. Johns and Okaloosa at 2.5%. At the other end were two counties directly hit by Hurricane Michael in October. Gulf’s jobless mark stood at 8.4%, up from 2.8% in the report for October. Bay County, which also was at 2.8% in October, jumped to 6.1% in November. The statewide unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted, while the local rates are not.