Despite this dip in employment, the jobs market appears sound in the longer perspective.
By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published October 23, 2004
[Photo: AP]
Shawn Kipfer, left, fills out an unemployment application wth the assistance of her daughter, Anna Kate Stryker, at the temporary jobless station in Port Charlotte on Aug. 17, just after Hurricane Charley hit.
Hurricanes cost about 9,500 Floridians their jobs last month - and that tally could grow.
According to the state's September jobs report, released Friday, bad weather led to the first monthly job loss in Florida since September 2001.
The biggest hit was to the leisure and hospitality industry, including restaurants and hotels, with construction workers not far behind.
The report reflects the effects of just the first two of four hurricanes to strike Florida since mid August. State officials warned unemployment could be revised upward as people continue to file disaster-related claims, although Warren May, spokesman for the state's Agency for Workforce Innovation, said he believes most claims have been filed.
"Claims activity is starting to taper off," he said, adding that more than 60,000 of the 84,000 claims filed were related to the first two storms. "We're hearing from a lot of people who were out of work for a week or two while their business was getting electricity restored or getting its roof fixed. A lot of those people are actually back at work."
Several hotel owners in the Tampa bay area said they were able to avoid layoffs despite substantial loss of business during the storm season.
"Folks on our payroll got less hours sporadically, but we were never in a position to lay anyone off," said Russ Bond, general manager of the Renaissance Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg.
Florida's preliminary unemployment rate for September was 4.5 percent, nearly unchanged from 4.6 percent in August and down from 5.1 percent a year ago. Based on these early figures, the state maintained its 21/2-year record of posting lower unemployment rates than the nation, which was at 5.4 percent in September.
The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area reported a jobless rate of 3.7 percent last month, compared with 4.4 percent a year ago. The Tampa Bay area continued to rank high among areas of the state in job creation, adding 14,100 jobs over the past year, mainly in professional and business services.
Outdoing Tampa in new jobs were the Orlando and Fort Lauderdale markets, adding 19,600 jobs and 14,200 jobs respectively. Over the past year, Florida has added 125,500 positions. Despite the hurricanes' month-to-month effect, over-the-year job growth has been positive in Florida for more than two years.
The aftermath of Hurricane Charley, which hit Aug. 13, was reflected in the rise in unemployment in the Punta Gorda area. That market, which took a direct hit from the storm, had an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent in September, up from 4.9 percent a year ago.
Job sectors benefiting from the hurricanes were temporary employment services, which posted an increase of 23,900 positions in September over a year ago. There were 100 new federal government positions in the state last month as a result of hurricane relief activity.
The state's job survey was conducted the week of Sept. 12. Workers who were absent from their jobs because of the storms, but on the payroll, were considered employed; those temporarily off the payroll were categorized as unemployed.
