Unemployment down in metros

Each of Southwest Florida's three major metro areas — Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, and Cape Coral-Fort Myers — saw its unemployment rate decrease in May, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, released this morning.

But the decreases appear to be driven by a shrinking labor force, rather than job gains.

In Cape Coral-Fort Myers, the labor force is estimated to have shrunk from 279,200 in May 2010 to 272,200 in the same month this year, a difference of 7,000. But unemployment is down by just 4,400, from 33,900 unemployed to 29,500.