Fla. Had Good Year In Lowering Unemployment, Comparatively
TALLAHASSEE (CBS4)- Florida had the second best year among all the states in terms of reducing unemployment over the last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week.
Florida was behind only New Mexico in lowering its official jobless rate from 11.9 percent in November 2010 to 10 percent last month, the BLS said. New Mexico's jobless rate dropped 2.1 percentage points from 8.6 to 6.5 percent.
Right behind Florida was Michigan, which lowered its rate 1.6 percentage points to 9.8 percent and West Virginia, which saw a 1.7 percentage point drop to 7.9 percent.
Also, the 98,100 jobs that Florida added over the year was third in the nation, behind only California and Texas.
Still, Florida is just one of eight remaining states with double digit unemployment, though the situation is better than in Nevada, at 13 percent, and California at 11.3 percent. North Dakota has the lowest jobless rate, 3.4 percent.
Gov. Rick Scott talked about the state's success in a radio appearance Wednesday morning.
"We've got to get more jobs in the state, but this has been a great year" the governor said during an interview with WFLA Radio in Tallahassee.
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The News Service of Florida contributed material for this report)
