Local Jobless Rate Steady
August 17, 2013
The latest job numbers released Friday the unemployment level holding almost steady across the entire three-county North Escambia area — as Florida’s unemployment rate also held steady.
Escambia County’s unemployment held steady at 7.1 percent from June to July There were 1,047 people reported unemployed during the period. One year ago, unemployment in Escambia County was 8.9 percent.
Santa Rosa County unemployment held steady at 6.8 percent from June to July. Santa Rosa County had a total of 5,188 persons still unemployed. The year-ago unemployment rate in Santa Rosa County was 8.5 percent.
In Escambia County, Alabama, unemployment dropped from 8.0 percent in June to 7.8 percent in July. That represented 1,139 people unemployed in the county during the month.
Florida’s unemployment rate has held steady through the front part of the summer. Bolstered by private-sector job growth in the fields such as automotive sales and repair, home maintenance and garden supply, transportation and utilities, the state’s unemployment rate stood at 7.1 percent in July, the same as in May and June, the state Department of Economic Opportunity announced Friday.
Alabama’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, at 6.3 percent in July, was down from June’s rate of 6.5 percent and was below the year-ago rate of 7.6 percent.
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2 Responses to “Local Jobless Rate Steady”
A county can’t depend on the county commissioners for its future, no matter how good they are. They are just too limited in time, power and vision, even the best of them.
The call centers do hire lots of folks. The paper mill hires lots of people. Gulf Power hires lots of people. UWF and PSC educates lots of people if they want to work here or elsewhere. Whatever Chemstrand is these days, it hires lots of people.
And there are farmers, pulpwooders, carpenters, plumbers, drug dealers, truckers, pilots, fishermen, home businesses able to reach the world through the Internet.
One of the best things would be if folks didn’t expect the government or big business to provide gainful employment. Admittedly, quite often the local government stands in the way of progress, but that is simply part of the nature of government, it doesn’t help unless it is helped.
Unfortunately our County commissioners don’t believe in getting businesses in here, just tourism and relying on the military for jobs, along with a couple of call centers. We have talented people here but no jobs for them, so they leave.