Florida's Unemployment Rate Below National Average for First Time in Five Years

Florida's economy slowly trudges on to something resembling recovery as numbers released today show that the state's unemployment rate is now below the national average for the first time in more than five years.Florida's unemployment rate was 7.8 percent for January. The national average stood at 7.9 percent. A tiny...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

March 18, 2013

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Florida's economy slowly trudges on to something resembling recovery as numbers released today show that the state's unemployment rate is now below the national average for the first time in more than five years.

Florida's unemployment rate was 7.8 percent for January. The national average stood at 7.9 percent. A tiny difference, but that's a significant rate improvement for Florida.

It's also the lowest rate for Florida since November 2008 when the rate also stood at 7.8 percent.

The number is also down .1 percent since December.

Though, all in all about 740,000 Floridians are still without a job.

"Everything we do is geared toward job creation," said Gov. Rick Scott in a statement. "Today we have more proof that IT'S WORKING. ... We have added more than 280,000 private-sector jobs over the last two years, and as we continue to focus on greater economic growth, we will see even more jobs created."

Florida has now seen positive job growth for 18 of the past 19 months.

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