This portion was written by the staff at the News Service of Florida in Tallahassee.
Tallahassee, FL - Gov. Ron DeSantis touted private-sector job creation Friday as Florida’s unemployment rate held steady from May to June.
The 3.4 percent jobless rate for June reflected 349,000 Floridians out of work --- down 4,000 from May --- from a workforce of 10.3 million, according to numbers released by the state Department of Economic Opportunity.
After the monthly numbers were posted, DeSantis issued a statement crediting the state’s “low taxes and reasonable regulations” for “fueling a strong private-sector job growth rate.”
DeSantis pointed to year-to-year gains in the categories of education and health services; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; construction; trade, transportation and utilities; and financial activities.
The state’s unemployment rate remains below the national rate, which ticked up from 3.6 percent in May to 3.7 percent in June. Among the state’s metropolitan statistical areas, the Crestview-Fort Walton-Destin region had the lowest jobless rate at 2.9 percent in June, while the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area was at 3.2 percent.
The state’s overall rate is seasonally adjusted, while the regional rates are not. The highest rates were found in the metropolitan statistical areas for Homosassa Springs and The Villages, each at 5.2 percent.
The Panama City area, which continues to recover from Hurricane Michael, was at 3.9 percent. The storm-battered region started the year with a 6 percent unemployment rate,
This portion was written by News Daytona Beach's Patrick Murphy
It seems that for the past couple of months, the jobless rate in Volusia and Flagler Counties continues to rise, despite an increase of over 2,000 workers when compared to the same month (June) last year.
The data, provided by CareerSource Flagler Volusia, shows that both counties currently sit at an unemployment rate of 3.8%, which is 0.4% higher than May 2019's unemployment rate and 0.6% higher than April's.
Losses were seen in some local industries. The information industry lost 100 workers when compared to the same month last year, marking a 4% decrease. The professional and business services industry took a bigger hit with a loss of 1,200 workers, a 5.1% decrease.
However, despite an increase, the jobless rate from June of this year is still lower than June of 2018, which was 4.1%, marking a drop of 0.3%.
Some other increases were also seen on the board. The mining, logging and construction industry saw the highest jump in workers with 1,200 people finding jobs, an 8.6% increase over last year.
Education and health services saw the second-highest jump with 900 people finding work, a 2.3% jump over 2018.
