Florida unemployment rate jumps to 10.6% in June
Friday, July 17, 2009, 10:33am EDT
Florida’s unemployment rate continues its upward trend, with the seasonally adjusted rate for June hitting 10.6 percent. That translates to 970,000 unemployed out of a labor force of 9.2 million, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.
June’s rate is up 0.3 percentage points from May’s 10.3 percent, when 943,000 Floridians were unemployed, and 4.6 percentage points higher than a year ago.
Florida’s unemployment rate is higher than the national rate, which hit 9.5 percent in May.
In South Florida,
Miami-Dade County’s unemployment rate shot up to 11.5 percent in June from 9.7 percent the previous month.
Palm Beach County’s rate rose to 11.1 percent from 10.4 percent in May.
Broward County saw its unemployment rate tick up to 9.4 percent from 9 percent.
The last time the unemployment rate was higher was October 1975, when it was 11 percent.
Florida’s nonagricultural employment for June was 7.3 million, with a loss of 392,800 jobs since June 2008.
“The downturn started with declines in construction jobs, but has now spread to almost all other major industries,” the agency noted in a news release.
This month the agency began paying Recovery Act-funded extended benefits to eligible Floridians who have exhausted all other state and federal unemployment compensation benefits.
By the end of Friday, the agency said it expects to have paid more than $100 million to more than 60,000 people.
About 250,000 Floridians will receive an estimated $418 million in extended benefits by the end of the year.
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