Newly-released figures for February, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Agency For Workforce Innovation, show that Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 9.4 percent. This means that 874,000 people are unemployed out of a labor force of 9,252,000. The unemployment rate is 0.6 percent higher than the January rate of 8.8 percent and is up 4.2 percentage points from the February 2008 rate.
Florida’s February 2009 unemployment rate is the highest since April 1976, when the rate was also 9.4 percent.
The February 2009 rate of job loss continues the trend of over-the-year declines that began in August 2007, primarily due to the loss of jobs in construction.
The nation’s unemployment rate is February was 8.1 percent.
