After three months in neutral, Florida’s unemployment rate is continuing its steady decline. The rate dipped from 5.7 to 5.6 percent last month.
From November to January, Florida’s unemployment rate stayed steady at 5.7 percent. A major part of that stagnation stems from a rapid increase in the labor market. From December to January alone, the labor pool grew by more than 35,000. But between January and February that growth dropped to only two thousand, and Department of Economic Opportunity Director Jesse Panuccio says demand for workers is higher than ever.
“Job demand, the number of openings, was also a record in February, 292,000 job openings across the state,” Pannucio says. “That’s actually the all-time record for the state.”
With supply more or less steady and demand high, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.6 percent for February. But the rate lags just behind the national rate of 5.5.