Drew Dixon
Despite being slammed by two hurricanes within two weeks of each other, Florida has maintained the same unemployment rate for the seventh month straight.
FloridaCommerce released monthly jobless data showing the figure remained at 3.3% for October. That number has been the same in the Sunshine State since April.
Florida also added 107,600 private sector jobs year-over-year compared to October 2023.
“Under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ direction, Florida immediately launched small business recovery resources to impacted communities, and in record time, we approved more than $52 million in loan funding to expedite recovery for impacted small businesses following an active hurricane season in Florida,” said Florida Secretary of Commerce J. Alex Kelly.
“To further support businesses that have been impacted multiple times, FloridaCommerce extended the zero-percent interest loan period to two years, allowed businesses to apply that still have active loans from previous storms, including Hurricanes Idalia and Ian, and reduced minimum credit score requirements from 600 to 550.”
The week after Hurricane Helene plowed into the Big Bend area on Sept. 26, new unemployment claims rose to about 9,000 claims. That weekly figure had held around 6,000 for most of the Summer heading into Fall in Florida, according to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) statistics.
Then, after Hurricane Milton hit the Gulf Coast on Oct. 9, unemployment claims climbed to more than 10,000 for the week ending Oct. 19. It took until the week ending on Nov. 2 for initial jobless claims to return to normal levels.
The Tampa area, which sustained heavy damage from both storms, did have the highest monthly unemployment rate in the state for any metro area in Florida in October, with a 3.8% jobless figure. That was a 0.5-percentage-point jump over the October 2023 rate of 3.3%. Notably, Tampa’s labor force dropped by 24,260 workers, or 1.4%, in October when compared to the same month in 2023.
The Southwest Florida and Naples area along the Gulf Coast also saw a jobless increase in October, rising to 3.5% or a 0.3-point increase compared to October 2023’s rate of 3.2%. Fort Myers, also on the Gulf Coast, saw jobless claims in October rising to 3.6%, a 0.2-point increase over October 2023’s rate of 3.4%.
The Miami area scored the state’s lowest unemployment rate for October, coming in at 2.2%. That’s an increase from October 2023’s rate of 1.7%.
The state’s jobless figure has been below the national rate for 48 straight months. The unemployment rate across the nation has held steady at 4.1% for the past two months.
