Florida ’ s jobless rate dropped to 4.6 percent in October ,
Florida ’ s jobless rate dropped to 4.6 percent in October , with a state economist saying the dip represents “ continued positive growth ” of people back in the labor force during the COVID-19 pandemic . The October rate was down from 4.8 percent in September and represented an estimated 491,000 Floridians being out of work in mid-October from a labor force that grew by 29,000 to 10.59 million , according to a report released Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity . The number of unemployed people was down from 506,000 in mid-September and 583,000 in October 2020 as the state was completing its reopening from the initial hit of the pandemic .
The report also indicated that Florida has regained 86.6 percent of the 1.27 million jobs lost between February and April 2020 , a period when businesses had to shut down or dramatically scale back because of the pandemic . Gov . Ron DeSantis ’ office said the progress stems from “ successful policies that put Floridians and businesses first .”
“ Florida ’ s economy continues to grow faster than the nation because we put the needs of Floridians and businesses first and make smart policy decisions that push back against heavy-handed mandates ,” DeSantis said in a prepared statement .
Adrienne Johnston , the Department of Economic Opportunity ’ s chief economist , pointed to “ continued positive growth .”
Florida ’ s unemployment rate matched the national rate of 4.6 percent in October .“ We try not to make too many predictions based on what we see at the national level , because the estimates are done for Florida , independent of that ,” Johnston told reporters in a conference call Friday . “ I think we ’ re confident that this is a good report . We ’ re still seeing job gains consistently , and seeing that coupled with the labor force increasing at the same time . That ’ s really key . We ’ re seeing the labor force growing , we ’ re seeing the unemployment rate declining , and we ’ re adding jobs to payrolls at the same time . So , all of that combined is a really strong labor market indicator .”
Since mid-May , the state has pushed to get Floridians back into the labor force , including by withdrawing early from two federal assistance programs and reinstating a “ work search ” requirement for people seeking unemployment benefits . In that time , Florida has seen an average of 7,696 new unemployment claims a week . The weekly average across the pre-pandemic years of 2018 and 2019 was 6,535 . The largest numbers of returning jobs have been in the fields hit hardest by the pandemic , leisure and hospitality , with an increase of 135,100 over the past year .
State officials have bemoaned struggles by service-related businesses in refilling positions and repeatedly pointed to around a half-million online postings across the state . But at least some workers in Florida
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