Fla. Unemployment Rate Stagnates In August
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBSMiami.com) – Unemployment remains stagnated in double digits some eight months after Governor Rick Scott pledged to get Florida workers back on the job.
According to the Agency for Workforce Innovation, statewide unemployment was unchanged from July, remaining at 10.7 percent in August. That puts Florida's unemployment rate more than one point above the national rate of 9.1 percent.
Broward County's unemployment numbers dropped in July to 9.5 percent. That translated to 93,791 workers out of a job in Broward County. Still, Broward County lost just fewer than 3,000 people from the workforce in August.
Miami-Dade County's unemployment picture remained bleak in August. While unchanged from July, the unemployment rate in Miami-Dade remained at 12.5 percent, nearly two percent above the statewide average.
The 12.5 percent unemployment rate left 163,477 workers in Miami-Dade County looking for an ever-elusive job. Miami-Dade lost 2,181 people from the workforce in the month of August.
Monroe County continued to have the lowest unemployment rates in the state at 6.7 percent. That was an increase of 0.2 percent from the July numbers.
But, the devil is in the details for the unemployment numbers. The true unemployment numbers are much worse when you add in workers who have given up looking for jobs, the underemployed, and other categories.
When adding in all of the groups, instead of just those receiving unemployment benefits, Miami-Dade County's unemployment rate is 20.6 percent; Broward County is 17.6 percent; and Monroe County stood at 14.8 percent.
