Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Florida jobless rate creeps up again
The housing slump contributes to rising unemployment.
Associated Press
Published September 22, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - Florida's unemployment rate ticked up slightly again in August to 4 percent, the highest it has been since April 2005, the state's Agency for Workforce Innovation said Friday. In the Tampa Bay metro area, the August unemployment rate was 4.3 percent, the same as in July but up from 3.5 percent in August of last year. The increase in joblessness is blamed partly on a slumping housing market. The construction industry has lost 18,500 jobs in Florida since last year. August was the sixth straight month in which Florida has seen a year-to-year drop in construction jobs, the first time that has happened since 1992, the agency said. The rate of people who could not find a job inched up from 3.9 percent in July, after a jump from 3.5 percent in June. But the 4 percent August rate is still below the national rate of 4.6 percent. Out of a civilian labor force of 9.2-million in Florida, 370,000 were jobless last month, the agency said. Walton County in the Panhandle had the state's lowest unemployment rate in August at 2.4 percent. Hendry County in south-central Florida had the highest rate at 9.8 percent, due in large part to seasonal declines in agricultural jobs.
[Last modified September 22, 2007, 00:07:02]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Letter to the editor
