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KRIS HUNDLEYUnemployment held steady in August, but will take a temporary turn for the worse, officials estimate.
Before Charley, Frances and Ivan came to visit, unemployment in Florida was on a steady downward slide.
Now state officials say they expect a spike in joblessness next month due to storm-related damage to businesses. But they are hopeful the spike will be only temporary.
"Even with the hurricanes, we'll experience job growth because of the recovery efforts that have to go on," said Warren May, spokesman for Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation. "That's what we saw after Hurricanes Andrew and Opal."
According to the state's August survey, which was completed before Charley's Aug. 13 landfall, Florida's unemployment rate held steady at 4.5 percent, unchanged from July.
For the 13th month in a row, Florida's rate remained lower than the national average, which was 5.4 percent in August.
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater continued to report a lower jobless average than the state, with unemployment at 3.9 percent last month compared to 4.5 percent a year ago.
The Tampa Bay area also trailed only Orlando in job creation over the past year, adding 15,600 new positions compared with Orlando's 22,400. Categories hiring locally included professional and business services, education and health care.
May said Florida's jobless figures will undoubtedly worsen next month. So far, 14,666 people have applied for special federal unemployment assistance after losing their jobs due to Hurricane Charley. Another 11,000 were left unemployed by Frances. No numbers are yet available on those whose work was affected by Ivan.
But May, who spent time in Punta Gorda after the storm, said the impact was likely to be felt across all job categories.
"After Charley, we saw everything from retail to manufacturing to hospitality affected," he said. "The good news is that as soon as many of these companies regained electricity and got their roofs fixed, they were back up and running."
Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or 727 892-2996.