Unemployment Rate Steady To Improving Across Area

December 21, 2013

The latest job numbers released Friday show the unemployment level sliding downward or hold steady across the entire three-county North Escambia area — as Florida’s unemployment rate also dropped.

Escambia County’s unemployment held steady at 6.1 percent in from October to November.  There were 8,595  people reported unemployed  during the period. One year ago, unemployment in Escambia County was 7.9 percent.

Santa Rosa County unemployment fell from 5.5 to 5.4  percent from October to November. Santa Rosa County had a total of  4,007 persons still unemployed. The year-ago unemployment rate in Santa Rosa County was 6.8 percent.

In Escambia County, Alabama, unemployment dropped  from 7.9 percent in October to 7.1 percent in November. That represented 978  people unemployed in the county during the month.

Florida’s unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent in November, down from 6.7 percent in October, the state Department of Economic Opportunity announced Friday.

The mark is the lowest for the state since July 2008 and represents a 1.6 percentage point improvement from a year ago.

Gov. Rick Scott, who announced the monthly numbers while at Full Sail University in Winter Park, credited his policies for the improved marks by highlighting the addition of 6,000 private sector jobs from October to November.

“We’ve cut taxes, made government more efficient and provided more services to families,” Scott said in a prepared statement. “The result: we are creating an opportunity economy that supports more than 446,000 new private sector jobs since December 2010.”

The monthly number keeps Florida below the national unemployment rate, a place it’s been since March.

The national jobless rate for November was 7.0, which also represented a 0.3 percentage point drop since October.

Florida’s seasonally adjusted November numbers estimate that 599,000 Floridians were out of work from a labor force of 9.4 million. The number of jobless is down 27,000 from October.

Slight increases in employment were reported in the fields of manufacturing, education and government, while decreases were seen in construction, financial activities and leisure and hospitality.

State economists have projected unemployment should continue to drop, returning to as low as 6 percent in Florida by 2016 at the latest. However, they also continue to assert that some of the drop is due to people having dropped out of the work force, in addition to new jobs being created in a clearly recovering economy.

Alabama’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, at 6.2 percent in November, was down from October’s rate of 6.4 percent and was below the year-ago rate of 6.9 percent.

The jobless numbers released by Florida and Alabama do not include persons that have given up on finding a job and are no longer reported as unemployed.

Comments

5 Responses to “Unemployment Rate Steady To Improving Across Area”

  1. David Huie Green on December 23rd, 2013 3:58 pm

    REGARDING:
    “If you are not collecting unemployment because you never applied, or because it ran out, you are not reported as unemployed and don’t count in the monthly report.”

    And I usually point out that they point out:

    “These employment, hours, and earnings estimates are developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Statistics.”
    (per http://www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/data-center/statistical-programs/current-employment-statistics and similar sources)

    And that the BLS does not determine unemployment from unemployment benefits but rather “A monthly household survey provides comprehensive information on the employment and unemployment of the population classified by age, sex, race, and ethnic origin, as well as other characteristics such as educational attainment and veteran status.”
    (per http://www.bls.gov/bls/demographics.htm )

    But I get the distinct impression nobody ever listens or believes but rather is convinced that the government is lying for nefarious reasons.

    But if you can’t trust your government, who can you trust?

    David for trustworthy government

  2. Dennis HE Wiggins on December 23rd, 2013 11:20 am

    According to what I figured based on numbers from http://www.usdebtclock.org, the national unemployment rate can be NO LESS THAN about 14.5% – 15%. The “official” number is about half that. So figure that in Florida and Alabama the number is probably about twice what is released as the “official” number.

  3. William on December 21st, 2013 9:11 am

    I normally put this statement in these monthly reports and just missed it this time (but have added it) –

    “The jobless numbers released by Florida and Alabama do not include persons that have given up on finding a job and are no longer reported as unemployed.”

    If you are not collecting unemployment because you never applied, or because it ran out, you are not reported as unemployed and don’t count in the monthly report.

  4. Gene on December 21st, 2013 9:06 am

    William, Do you know when Unemployment #’s go down, is that taking into account individuals who use up their benefits?

    I have never collected unemployment benefits so I do not know how the system works?

  5. Jane on December 21st, 2013 4:20 am

    If you notice, the unemployment rate is higher in Escambia County. We have no business incentives here. All the County Commissioners focus on is tourism and it doesn’t pay well when it comes to jobs.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News