State, Local Jobless Rates Drop

Daytona Beach, FL - The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) releases a new report that highlights a 4% drop in the state’s jobless rate for August. The state’s report also found that the labor force increased 1.4% over the month, which reflects an influx of 143,000 Floridians entering the workforce. 46,000 private sector jobs were also added throughout August. That put the state’s job creation over-the-year rate of decline of 5.8%, which is 1.6% lower than the nation’s over-the-year decline of 7.4% Other "encouraging indicators" that the state discussed in their report include an influx of 631,600, which makes up for over half of the 1,178,100 jobs Florida lost between February and April of 2020. Additionally, the three industries that lost the most jobs in that same time frame— leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and education and health services—gained back 448,300 jobs.  “Florida’s job creators have faced significant challenges this year, forcing many of them to make difficult strategic decisions; however, today’s employment data reflects their commitment to Florida families,” said Dane Eagle, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity in a prepared release. The state’s jobless rate now sits at 7.4%, 3.9% lower than July’s rate of 11.3%. The Local Impact According to a release from CareerSource Flagler Volusia, the unemployment rate in the Volusia & Flagler saw a similar drop of about 3.6% from July’s 10.6% which puts the area’s rate at 7%. Nonagricultural jobs in the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) took an almost 3% hit in August after CareerSource FV reported a loss of 5,700 jobs, putting the total at 199,200. The local MSA also had the third fastest annual job growth rate compared to all other MSA’s in the state in government jobs with a 2.1% increase reported in August. The same was said for trade, transportation, and utilities industries and professional and business services, both of which saw an increase of about 100 jobs each. The leisure hospitality industry lost the most jobs with 3,000, while manufacturing saw the second highest loss with 1,500. The national unemployment rate fell 2% from 10.5% to 8.5%.