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Florida's jobless rate drops to a four-year low

The bay area is one of the hot markets but, statewide, 349,000 people are still out of work.

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published June 18, 2005

May was a good month for job creation in the Tampa Bay area and throughout the state, which marked close to three years of positive job growth.

Florida's unemployment rate declined to 4 percent last month, a full percentage point lower than the national rate and the lowest in Florida since February 2001.

At that level, 349,000 people were out of work in the state, the fewest since September 2001, when 348,000 people were looking for jobs in the aftermath of 9/11.

"We're already hearing from a lot of employers, saying they're having trouble finding the exact right person for the job," said Warren C. May, spokesman for Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation.

Florida's jobless rate in May was down 0.2 percent from April and 0.8 percent from a year ago. The Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater area continued to do better than the state average, with a unemployment rate of 3.8 percent in May, compared to 4.4 percent a year ago and 4 percent in April.

The Tampa Bay area also continued to be a leader in job creation, coming in behind south Florida and Orlando with the addition of 32,600 jobs over the past year.

Statewide, 215,500 jobs have been created since May 2004. The biggest growth is in professional and business services; that sector accounted for more than half of new jobs in the Tampa Bay area.

Other categories hiring include education and health, trade and transportation and construction. Manufacturing showed mixed results: hiring was up at plants making durable goods, but jobs were lost at food and printing plants.

[Last modified June 18, 2005, 00:45:19]