Unemployment On The Rise In 3-County Area

July 23, 2011

The latest job numbers released Friday was bad news for the three counties in the North Escambia area, with unemployment rates up sharply.

Escambia County’s unemployment jumped back into the double digits — from 9.9 in May to 10.5 percent in June. There were 1,045 jobs lost, for a total Escambia County unemployment of 14,950 people. One year ago, unemployment in Escambia County was 10.7 percent.

Santa Rosa County a full percentage point increase— from 8.7 percent in May to 9.7  percent in June. Santa Rosa County lost 810jobs during the period, with a total of 7,030  persons still unemployed. The year-ago unemployment rate in Santa Rosa County was 9.6 percent.

Escambia County, Alabama, had over a one percent jump in unemployment — from 11.2 percent in May  to 12.4  percent in June. Escambia, Alabama, lost 22 jobs during the month-long period, with 1,875 people out of work.

Florida

Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in June 2011 is 10.6 percent. This represents 982,000 jobless out of a labor force of 9,234,000. The state’s unemployment rate is unchanged from May 2011 but is 0.8 percentage point lower than the June 2010 rate of 11.4 percent. The U.S. unemployment rate is 9.2 percent in June.

Florida’s seasonally adjusted total nonagricultural employment in June 2011 is 7,247,000, an increase of 4,300 jobs (+0.1 percent) from May 2011. Florida has gained 85,500 jobs from January through June 2011.

“While Florida’s continued pattern of job growth is good news, we still have much work to do to restore our state’s economy to pre-recession levels, and that effort remains our highest priority,” said Agency for Workforce  Innovation Director Cynthia R. Lorenzo. “Under Governor Scott’s leadership and through Florida’s nationally recognized workforce services, we are committed to ensuring our employers and potential employers have the support they need to succeed and create the jobs that will continue Florida’s forward momentum.”

Alabama

Alabama’s June 2011 unemployment rate rose to 9.9%, up from May’s rate of 9.6% and the 9.3% recorded a year ago. June’s rate represents 213,975 unemployed persons, compared to 206,578 last month and 197,780 in June 2010.
“While we are disappointed to report any increase in our seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, we keep in mind the contributing factors that led us here,” said Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees. “We still have hundreds of Alabamians unemployed as a direct result of the tornadoes of last April and the national unemployment rate also continues to rise. On the positive side, we have observed an uptick in the number of discouraged workers re-entering the job market in their employment search. There are over 33,000 more Alabamians working in June than in January, but during this same period over 50,000 came into the workforce. ”

Comments

12 Responses to “Unemployment On The Rise In 3-County Area”

  1. Kathy on July 24th, 2011 3:17 pm

    I voted for President Obama and I am proud of it!! He is doing a great job, government doesn’t make jobs, too bad Gov. Scott didn’t know that!!

  2. Kay on July 24th, 2011 9:29 am

    Jane, Dgh, and BPD said it all.

    I saw yesterday one of the incumbents up at the bait shop.
    Good to know.

    Won’t be voting for them either…….

  3. t on July 23rd, 2011 8:37 pm

    Obviously there is a large structional change in the economy that will probably last a long time. We may never see low unemployment for a long time.

    Businesses will not hire with fianancial and regulatory uncertainty. The continue increase in the national debt and the tremers in Europe will keep businesses on the sidelines and they will take the cash positions they are building to use for emergencies. Europe is heading for a financial collapse and we are also headed there. The solution of solving a debt problem is not to add more debt like the idiots in europe are doing. You must reduce the debt and bankrupsy/default is teh only way to correct the problem. Kicking the can down the road and growing Europes debt will make the collapse much worse.

    Demand has not increased significantly and thus businesses do not need to hire

    Health care bill provided huge cost uncertainties to the small businesses who do much of the nation hiring.

  4. huh on July 23rd, 2011 8:33 pm

    Thats an easy fix, the Republicans will just cut back unemployment benefits so they don’t have to mark more people as unemployed!

    If only our previous president had not spent trillions of dollars on a useless war we wouldn’t have these problems. Why was no one out raged at war spending?

  5. BarrineauParkDad on July 23rd, 2011 7:43 pm

    The jobs are there, but the jobs which pay good money, require either hard work which most are not willing to do or an education and skills that most don’t have. The days of getting a good paycheck to sit on a stool and put one screw in one hole for eight hours are long gone. To make it today, you have to have an education and be able to flex some brain muscles.

  6. dad on July 23rd, 2011 6:02 pm

    Thanks dgh. You said what I was thinking.
    What short memories some people have.

  7. Bob on July 23rd, 2011 5:43 pm

    Cut UCC benefits to twelve weeks and watch this problem start to go away. I still have a problem with people that take advantage of this for one hundred weeks. Many are taking the benefits and working for cash on the side. Offer most a job and they will quickly tell you it will mess up the UCC they are drawing. Stop those benefits at twelve weeks and make it mandatory to not reapply for six months and see what happens.

  8. mom on July 23rd, 2011 9:31 am

    I didn’t either!!

  9. dgh on July 23rd, 2011 9:26 am

    On politics, if that crazy Bachmann gets the nomination you better believe I’ll vote Obama for the country can’t handle economic crisis, an unstable world climate and an anti-intellectual who is prejudice in the White House.

  10. dgh on July 23rd, 2011 9:23 am

    Sam: seriously? The middle class has been in decline since the early 80’s, the recession started prior to this administration, and is one of the worst we have endured and knew the road to recovery would not be fast, but now it is entirely the President’s fault? I’m afraid I smell the taint of politics. Obama has not done everything right, but when it comes to jobs, neither party is helping, and unfortunately the GOP is currently more out there than the Dems. Maintaining subsidies to large corporations (ag and oil for two) does not create jobs or protect them. Globalization has taken them overseas for the pure form of ‘free market economics’ tells us to make products in the cheapest markets for consumers have been taught the only important thing is the cheapest price; not good jobs, quality of life, etc. Funny thing is we don’t get the ‘cheapest price’ but we get poorer quality and our jobs overseas. Walmart selling a TV cheaper than a local company is usually selling a TV that has less quality inside the cabinet and just looks the same, thus those tidy profits they continue to rake in.

    Job creation is another matter that should have policy that promotes the segment that creates the most jobs; small business start ups.

  11. Jane on July 23rd, 2011 8:22 am

    So tell us something we don’t know.There never have been jobs here and the county commissioners make it harder for new businesses to come here. Alabama and some other counties in Florida don’t seem to be doing as badly. If you don’t make an effort to encourage new businesses here you won’t have more people employed, which means less tax dollars in the county/state. It also means less spending at the current businesses. Talk to your county commisioners….some are up for re-election!

  12. sam on July 23rd, 2011 8:16 am

    the cause for all this is simple. he sits in the white house. my only consolation is I DIDN’T VOTE FOR HIM.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News