Governor’s Office says jobs ‘available for every Floridian who wants to work’

Image via AP.

There’s no excuse not to be working in the state of Florida.

That’s the take of the Governor’s Office, which is saying as much in an email offering a rosy view of the Sunshine State’s job market.

“Data in the month of July continues to indicate there are jobs available for every Floridian who wants to work, with more than 433,000 jobs posted online,” the message said.

As is usual with these monthly job market updates, the Governor’s Office spends much of the space comparing Florida with the rest of the country.

“In July 2024, Florida’s statewide unemployment rate was 3.3%, which was 1 percentage point lower than the national rate of 4.3%. Additionally, Florida’s private sector employment grew by 201,500 jobs (+2.3%) over the year since July 2023, outpacing the national rate of 1.5% over the same time period,” the Governor’s Office said.

Both Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Secretary of Commerce J. Alex Kelly are offering statements with sharp critiques of federal policy.

“Florida proves the economy can fare better with better leadership. If Washington reversed course and followed Florida’s lead, families and small businesses across America would be better off,” DeSantis argued.

For his part, Kelly is critiquing the cost of borrowing money.

“The federal government’s indecisive and fiscally irresponsible policies — including the decision of the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates high — continue to cause chaos. Florida is the number one ecosystem for job creation in the world, continuing to instill confidence in job creators and job seekers with smart fiscal policies and economic stability, and is attracting record numbers of visitors to our state,” Kelly said.

The secretary alludes here to the latest tourism numbers, released earlier this week by the Governor’s Office: “a record-breaking 34.2 million visitors in the second quarter of 2024 … a 1.7% increase over the same period in 2023, setting a new all-time high for second-quarter visitation in the state’s history.”