Local Unemployment Rate Falls Slightly

September 17, 2017

The latest job numbers  show the employment rate falling slightly in Escambia County.

Escambia County’s seasonably adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.0 percent in August, down slightly from 4.3 percent in July.  There were 5,854 people reported unemployed  during the period. One year ago, unemployment in Escambia County was 5.0 percent.

Florida’s unemployment rate ticked down to 4 percent in August, as the state continued to fare better than the nation on joblessness.

Florida’s rate was down from 4.1 percent in July, according to numbers released Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. That represented 408,000 unemployed Floridians out of a workforce of 10,095,000.

The national unemployment rate in August was 4.4 percent.

The Department of Economic Opportunity said Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys, had the state’s lowest jobless rate in August, at 2.7 percent. Monroe was followed by St. Johns County at 3.2 percent and Walton and Okaloosa counties at 3.3 percent. Hendry County had the highest unemployment rate at 10.2 percent. It was followed by Hardee County at 7.1 percent and Glades County at 6.3 percent.

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

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

Comments

3 Responses to “Local Unemployment Rate Falls Slightly”

  1. RD on September 21st, 2017 11:55 am

    4.3 to 4.0 is not down slightly. A reduction of 0.3% means 7.0% of the people that were still unemployed and looking for work, found work in August. That is a pretty significant in my book.

  2. nne 1of2 on September 17th, 2017 9:36 am

    I wonder how or if they count those who will never return as they are now self-employed on their computers and loving every minute of it making money working 24 hours a week.

  3. Tom on September 17th, 2017 4:52 am

    Unemployment rate only measures people who are in the workforce or are seeking employment, The number of people not in the workforce has almost doubled in this country sense the 1990s according to the Labor Department. This shift can easily be traced to the lack of highly paid middle class skilled jobs vs the now more abundant lower class minimum wage only jobs.