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Palm Beach County's jobless rate falls to single digits

By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — The holiday shopping season gave Palm Beach County a pretty nice gift: more jobs.

The unemployment rate for the county dropped to 9.7 percent in December from 10.1 percent a month earlier, according to a report released Friday by Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity. The actual number of unemployed also fell, to 60,029 from 62,398 in November.

Those numbers are not seasonally adjusted, meaning it reflects temporary jobs added for the holiday shopping season and the winter tourist season, as well as permanent jobs. That makes the drop between November and December less meaningful as an indicator of the health of the job market.

The key comparison is year-over-year, and the drop is significant: in December 2010, the rate sat at 11.6 percent — nearly 2 percentage points higher.

“This is a significant milestone as Palm Beach County’s unemployment rate has not been in the single digits since May 2009. And there’s more good news: the number of job openings has increased 14 percent in the county compared to this same time last year,” Workforce Alliance CEO Steve Craig said.

Other findings from Friday’s report: the statewide jobless rate fell to 9.9 percent from 10.0 a month earlier. The number of unemployed dropped to 913,000, down from 927,000 in November. Those numbers are adjusted for seasonal factors.

A year ago, Florida’s jobless rate sat at 12.0 percent; the number of unemployed, 1.11 million.

In Broward County, the jobless rate dropped to 8.6 percent from 8.9 percent in November and 10.2 percent in December 2010.

Friday’s report shows that Palm Beach County gained 4,800 jobs and experienced employment growth in six industry categories over the last 12 months: education and health services (+4,200 jobs), professional and business services (+3,300 jobs), construction (+1,100 jobs), manufacturing (+700 jobs), other services (+200 jobs), and financial activities (+100 jobs).

Job losses over the same period were primarily in government (-2,400 jobs), leisure and hospitality (-1,800 jobs), information (-300 jobs), and utilities (-300 jobs).