Florida’s unemployment rate climbed in July as economic fallout from coronavirus continued
Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate hit 11.3 percent in July, up one percentage point from the revised June rate and up 8.2 percentage points from a year ago — a sign that the economic fallout from coronavirus continues.
Two factors likely helped drive the rate higher. On the one hand, state job creation fell sharply month on month, with just 77,900 new positions created compared with nearly 300,000 last month. But the unemployment uptick was likely also caused by the return of 223,000 workers to the labor force. The unemployment rate is a measure of individuals searching for work as a percentage of the total labor force.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported Friday that there were now 1,125,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 9,975,000.
Like the rest of the state, Miami-Dade and Broward counties saw their unemployment rates increase. Miami-Dade’s rate climbed from 11.8% to 14.2%, while Broward’s increased from 11.8% to 13.1%. Both counties also registered net job losses on the month, with Miami-Dade declining 7,700 and Broward losing 2,700.
In Dade, leisure and hospitality saw the most job losses in July with 6,300, while professional and business service jobs, a key growth sector for the county, declined by 1,700. Construction jobs fell by 1,300. Broward’s job losses were led by education and health services, which declined by 4,900.
Since May, the state has gained back 572,200 of the 1,178,100 jobs it lost from February to April.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 11:00 AM.
