Unemployment Drops 0.1% In May
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Florida's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 7.1 percent in May 2013 which was the lowest rate seen since September 2008. Overall, unemployment dropped 0.1 percent in the last month according to the seasonally adjusted numbers.
In Broward County, the unemployment rate actually ticked up from 5.6 to 5.7 percent in May. Overall, 59,202 workers were out of a job in May, compared to 57,242 in April. Still, both numbers are significantly better than May 2012 when the unemployment rate in Broward was 7.4 percent.
Miami-Dade County's non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percent in May to 8.7 percent. There were 112,521 on the state unemployment rolls compared to 114,087 in April. The year-over-year drop for Miami-Dade came in at 1 percent 9.7 in 2012 and 8.7 in 2013.
Monroe County's unemployment rate ticked up to 4.0 percent yielding a total of 4,844 workers looking for a job in the Florida Keys.
Still, the biggest problems with the numbers are the lack of differentiation between full-time, full-benefit jobs and part-time, no benefit jobs. In addition, the numbers don't reflect the total unemployment figures, which includes those who have given up or dropped out of the work force, just like the national numbers.
The U-6 unemployment number, which includes all jobless numbers, is released by the Labor Department, but not by the state of Florida's unemployment report.
So, while unemployment may be declining, there's no firm evidence that the job market is improving on a large scale or if people are leaving the workforce because the jobs that are being created can't sustain people in 2013.
