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Florida's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August is 10.7%, unchanged from last month's jobless rate and down 0.9 percentage points over the year, according to the latest report from the Agency for Workforce Innovation.
The state's unemployment rate has stagnated because the economy is failing to add new jobs at a significant rate. AWI estimates that total employment in Florida increased from 7,187,000 jobs in August 2010 to 7,233,100 last month, an increase of 0.6%.
While some sectors of Florida's economy are recovering — hospitality and health services added a combined 68,000 new jobs, for example — job losses in government and construction are negating those gains. The public sector shed 20,400 jobs over the past year, while the construction industry eliminated 17,600 workers, a 5.1% decrease in total work force.
Changes in employment at the regional level throughout the Gulf Coast were a mixed bag. The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area added 14,800 jobs over the year, representing 40% of all net jobs added in Florida since August 2010, and a 1.3% increase in employment locally.
Both Cape Coral-Fort Myers and North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota saw slight increases in employment. Each metro area saw a 0.2% increase in employment, with 800 net jobs added between the two regions combined.
The Naples-Marco Island metro area shed 3,000 jobs over the past year, lowering its total employment number by 2.8%.
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