A just released economic overview of the state by the Florida Legislature Office of Economic and Demographic Research confirms that 69 percent of the drop in the unemployment rate is due to people dropping out of the labor force.
Florida recorded an unemployment rate of 8.6 percent in May, a decline of 1.3 percent from the 9.9 percent jobless rate last December. But, according to the economic report released Tuesday, if the size of the workforce had held steady, the unemployment rate in May would have been much higher.
“If the participation rate had held steady since (December) the unemployment rate would have been 9.5 percent — 69 percent of the drop in the unemployment rate is due to people leaving the workforce,” the report indicates.
The report adds that the job market in Florida will take a long time to recover as 751,800 jobs have been lost since the most recent peak.
It would take the creation of about 1 million jobs for the jobless rate to fall to pre-recession levels, the report concludes.
So much for Gov. Rick Scott’s promise of 700,000 new jobs!
