Florida has added more than 1.4 million jobs since Governor Rick Scott took office. But Scott’s 700,000 jobs in seven years campaign promise is looking doubtful.
During Governor Scott’s first campaign, state economists projected normal growth of about 1 million jobs over the next seven years. Scott initially contended his 700,000 jobs would come on top of that growth. He later tried to walk that back. July’s jobs report met a new benchmark but the underlying promise is in jeopardy. Here’s state jobs czar Cissy Proctor.
“As the governor announced this morning private sector businesses created over 1,422,000 new jobs since our governor took office,” Proctor says.
Meanwhile, Proctor says the state jobless rate is holding steady.
“Our unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 percent," Proctor says, "at the same time as our labor force is growing and it’s growing currently at nearly 4 times that of the nation. So July was a very strong month for our state and we’re excited to be able to celebrate.”
The state has added about 226,000 jobs so far this year—in the whole of 2016 Florida only added 251,400.
Unless employment grows at an immense rate, it is unlikely Florida will hit 1.7 million jobs by the end of this year.
