Unemployment Numbers About Steady In The Local Area

April 19, 2014

The latest job numbers released Friday show the unemployment level steady or inching  downward in most of the  North Escambia area — as Florida’s unemployment rate went up since the first time since the middle of 20110.

Escambia County’s unemployment remained steady between February and March at 6.7 percent.  There were 9,213 people reported unemployed  during the period. One year ago, unemployment in Escambia County was 7.6 percent.

Santa Rosa County unemployment fell from 5.9 to 5.7  percent from February to March. Santa Rosa County had a total of  4,251 persons still unemployed. The year-ago unemployment rate in Santa Rosa County was 6.8 percent.

In Escambia County, Alabama, unemployment inched fell from 9.3  percent in February0  to 8.6 percent in December. That represented 1,210  people unemployed in the county during the month.

Florida’s unemployment mark rose from 6.2 percent in February to 6.3 percent in March. Jobs officials say the negative movement is in part because more people are in the labor pool.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announced Friday that while the number of people with jobs has increased, the state’s unemployment mark rose from 6.2 percent in February to 6.3 percent in March.

A release from Gov. Rick Scott’s office briefly referred to the increase, instead focusing on the creation of private sector jobs across Florida during the past month, year and since January 2011, when the governor took office.

“Today I am proud to announce that Florida businesses created more than 20,000 jobs in March,” Scott, who is campaigning for re-election on job growth, also said on Twitter. The bulk of the new jobs were in service-related fields, topped by leisure and hospitality, according to the Department of Economic Opportunity.

The last time the state’s monthly mark — based on estimates of the number of people employed and actively seeking employment — increased was in August 2010. At that time, the figure rose from 11.2 percent to 11.3 percent, and an estimated 1.03 million Floridians were out of work. There are currently an estimated 606,000 jobless Floridians.

Alabama’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, at 6.7percent in March, was up from February’s rate of 6.4 percent and was up from the year-ago rate of 6.6 percent

The jobless numbers released by Florida and Alabama do not include persons that have given up on finding a job and are

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News