State unemployment continues to climb

TALLAHASSEE — The slumping housing industry continues to hound the state economy, witness the latest numbers from Florida’s Agency for Workforce Innovation.

The agency reported Friday that the statewide jobless rate jumped to 4.2 percent in October from 4.0 in October. A year ago, the rate was at 3.2 percent. The numbers are adjusted for seasonal factors.

The national rate for October was 4.7 percent, according to the Labor Department.

Over the past 12 months, Florida has lost nearly 22,000 construction jobs, and for the first time since 1992, has seen the net number of jobs in the sector decline for eight consecutive months.

“Part of it was that we were at such a high-growth level before,” said Rebecca Rust of the Labor Market Statistics Center at the agency.  “When the slow-down comes, it’s going to hit high growth states harder than states that did not have the high growth.”

There’s a spill-over effect as well. Retail job growth has slowed in part because much of the sector is building related. And consumers, unable to sell their homes, are spending less, especially as other costs, such as energy, climb.

Palm Beach County posted a jobless rate of 4.7 percent for October, compared with 4.8 percent in September and 3.5 percent a year ago. The rate remains low by historical standards, but much higher than it has been for the last year or so.

In Broward, the jobless rate held steady at 3.8 percent, same as in September, but up significantly from the 2.9 percent posted a year ago.

In Miami-Dade the rate climbed slightly to 4.3 percent from September’s 4.1 percent and the 3.8 percent of a year ago.

County rates are not seasonally adjusted, making year-over-year comparisons rather than month-to-month more accurate reflections of what’s happening in a local job market.

Year-over-year, Florida added 111,000 jobs, including 32,300 in leisure and hospitality and 31,100 in education and health.

The number of manufacturing jobs declined by 4,900 and information jobs fell be 4,000.