Florida’s unemployment rate declined to 8.7 percent in April from the previous month’s 9.0 percent, the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) announced Friday.
The April figure is 0.3 percentage points lower than March and 1.9 points lower than the 10.6 percent recorded in April 2011. Last month’s jobless rate is the lowest since January 2009.
Despite the decline, more than 800,000 Floridians remain out of work in the Sunshine State.
The U.S. unemployment rate for April was 8.1 percent, with more than 13 million people out of work.