Lagging Economic Indicators

Unemployment in Miami-Dade at Highest Level in 12 Months

While Gov. Rick Scott was trumpeting the fact that Florida's overall unemployment rate was lower than the national average for the first time in five years, the picture is considerably bleaker here in Miami-Dade. According to local numbers released today, the county's unemployment rate is the highes ... More >>

The First 48 Keeps Miami's Inner City Neighborhoods in the Dumps

Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke goes after one of the most watched shows on cable television.I've never been a big fan of the First 48, the reality-TV show that ... More >>

Giraffas, Manolo's & Novecento: Miami Leads United States' Food Culture UPDATED

Update: Giraffas announced that they have chosen Miami-Dade to be the Brazilian chain's U.S. headquarters adding 285 direct new jobs within three years and an initial capital investment of $8 million. Congratulations on your 285 new jobs, Miami.We recently stumbled across a headline picked ... More >>

Miami Named Second Worst-Run City in America; Hialeah Fifth

Congratulations, Miami-Dade! You're home to two of the five worst-run cities in the country.The rankings come from 247WallSt.com which used a number of factors to determine the list. Gross metropolitan product, public debt, unemployment rates, violent crime, poverty, home prices, the number of insur ... More >>

Florida Unemployment Drops to Lowest Level in Four Years

Lets party like it's November 2008. Yes, Florida's unemployment has dropped to its lowest level since that month.The state released new unemployment figures for November 2012 today, and the rate now stands at 8.1 percent. That's a drop of 0.4 percent from the previous month's rate of 8.5 percent. It ... More >>

Reader Mail: Marlins Park Has Screwed the City and Fans

Florida's Unemployment Rate Rises for First Time in 12 Months

Hey, the Florida unemployment numbers are in for July, and -- oh no! What's this? A rise? We haven't seen one of these in 12 months.Yes, Florida's unemployment rate rose from 8.6 percent in June to 8.8 percent in July, the first increase after a steady stream of declines in the past 12 months.

Joe Biden Visits Everglades, Stumps for Obama and Bill Nelson, Does Not Kill a Burmese Python

It was an entrance worthy of Vladimir Putin.Joe Biden roared his air boat to a halt in the Everglades. Miccosukee war paint smeared his face. Swamp spray glistened on his bare chest. The Veep then tossed a giant, dead Burmese python at the feet of a gaggle of reporters and screamed: "Are you not ent ... More >>

Mitt Romney's Years at Bain Represent Everything You Hate About Capitalism

Miami Area Added 11th Most Private Sector Jobs in the Country in 2011

​Unemployment may be staggeringly high in Florida, but according to a new analysis by On Numbers, the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area added the 11th most private sector jobs of any metro area in 2011. That only added up to 21,600 new jobs, though. And, in terms of percentage growth, the area only ranked ... More >>

Grand Central Park Opens Today, But Is It A Waste Of Taxpayers' $200,000?

​When Tiffany Dallas, a master's student at Florida International University, started researching her thesis on redeveloping Overtown, she was fascinated by Grand Central owner Brad Knoefler's plan to turn a blighted patch of land opposite his club -- once the home of the Miami Arena -- into a tem ... More >>

Rick Scott's Jobs Plan Producing Mostly No-Benefit Gigs Paying $19,000 A Year

​Last month Gov. Rick Scott bragged that the unemployment in Florida had dropped a tenth of one percent, with 64,000 jobs added between January and July. True enough, but now it turns out that more than half those jobs were health care, food service and hotel gigs paying low wages with little to n ... More >>

Rick Scott: "I Don't Have to Create Any Jobs"

​Rick Scott's central campaign promise seemed pretty simple: His economic plan would create 700,000 additional jobs on top of normal job growth over seven years. In the past month, Scott has been flip-flopping wildly on that promise, and this morning on a conservative radio show, he said, "I could ... More >>

Binge Drinking Rises with Unemployment: UMiami Study

​Don't think just because incomes tend to dwindle during times of job loss that folks still aren't shelling out cash for booze. In fact, a new University of Miami study claims that incidents of binge drinking tend to rise with state unemployment levels. The study flies in the face of previous stud ... More >>

Rick Scott Still Trying to Figure Out Exactly What His Campaign Promises Meant

Back when he was running for Governor, Rick Scott promised that he'd add 700,000 jobs in Florida over seven years in addition to what the economy would produce regardless of who was Governor. It seemed like a simple enough promise at the time, but now ten months into his term he's still ap ... More >>

Rick Perry: Awful politician, genius campaigner

Rick Scott No Longer Promises Floridians 700,000 New Jobs

Rick Scott's pledge that he'd create 700,000 new jobs for Floridians in addition to expected job growth was perhaps one of the least controversial themes of his election campaign. Yeah, well, sorry -- he's flip-flopped on that. He's no longer promising 700,000 jobs in addition to the jobs the state ... More >>

Miami Ranked One of America's Most Stressful Cities

​Oh sure we've got decent weather and calming seas, but it's not exactly a surprise that for us living year round in Miami life can be stressful. Let's not even get started on our ridiculous traffic, horrible parking, and tanked economy. So it shouldn't be shocki ... More >>

Miami-Dade's Unemployment Rate Falls for Second Month in a Row

​Though the unemployment rate at both the national and state levels remains stagnant or sagging, the job market in Miami-Dade continues to make gains. From August 2010 to last month, 13,900 jobs were added in Miami-Dade. However, our seasonally adjusted unemployment rate still sits at 12 ... More >>

Wells Fargo Laid Off 258 Employees in Doral, Released Report Saying Jobs in South Florida Are on the Rise

​Yesterday, Wells Fargo laid off 258 employees at a call center in Doral. But fear not, former Wells Fargo workers! Today, Wells Fargo released a report saying South Florida will help lead the state in job growth over the next year. Just apparently not the call-center jobs at Wells Fargo.

Marco Rubio Says Obama's Jobs Plan Won't Work, Moody's Top Economist Says It Will

​Yesterday, President Obama outline a proposed $447 billion jobs bill that would cut payroll taxes, increase spending on infrastructure and public works programs, and extend unemployment benefits.Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, with lightning-fast speed, released a statement and video response last nigh ... More >>

Miami-Dade's Unemployment Rate Fell 1.4 Percent in July, But Florida Still Lost 22,100 Jobs

​Rick "The Jobs Governor" Scott has pointed to Florida's slowly dwindling unemployment rate since he took office in January. In fact, from January through June the state added 64,300 jobs. July is a different story. More than a third of those total jobs gained have now been lost.The good news ... More >>

Rick Scott Falsely Claims Florida's Unemployment Rate Has Fallen Faster Than Any Other Since He Took Office

​Rick Scott spent his entire morning today serving doughnuts at a shop in Tampa in an effort to paint himself as a creator-of-jobs governor and score some publicity points. Of course, directly after, he got on a talk radio show to talk all about it.Scott was chatting on WFTL 850 AM in Pompano Bea ... More >>

Rick Scott's dirtiest deeds

Rick Scott Gets Over His Fear of Trains and Approves SunRail

​Gov. Rick Scott has seemed to overcome his hesitations about funding Central Florida's SunRail commuter train program and announced his approval of state funding for the program today. Scott's first big decision in office was surprisingly killing a federally funded high-speed train project, a mov ... More >>

Florida's Unemployment Rate is Lowest Since August 2009, But Miami-Dade's Rises Again

​The unemployment rate in Florida has fallen for the fifth straight month in May, mirroring a national trend. Unfortunately, there isn't much to celebrate in Miami-Dade. The local unemployment rate rose once again by 0.5 percent and is now the second highest unemployment rate of any county in Flor ... More >>

Lie: Rick Scott Infers He's Better at Creating Job Than Obama

​It's one thing for a politician to twist facts and figures to support his own agenda. Unfortunately, it's just business as usual for the political class. It's quite another for a politician to have such little faith in the intelligence of his constituents that he straight-up lies about figures an ... More >>

Florida Unemployment Hits Lowest Level in 19 Months, But Tops 13 Percent in Miami-Dade

​Well, here's the "good" news. Florida's unemployment rate now sits at 10.8 percent according to numbers from the month of April. That's still stupendously high, and still well above the national rate of 9.2 percent. The bad news it that the unemployment actually rose in Miami-Dade in April, a ... More >>

Rick Scott's Major Failure: Legislature Won't Eliminate Corporate Income Tax

​Florida is undergoing a radical conservative transformation under Gov. Rick Scott, but one of his top proposals seems to be a bridge too far and too soon even for the Republican supermajorities in the state House and Senate.Even at a time when billion-dollar deficits have become the norm for Flor ... More >>

Will Orlando Push Miami Out as Florida's Most Economically Important Metro Area?

​Back in 1987, writer T.D. Allman declared in the title of his book that Miami was "The City of the Future," and over the next two decades, our metropolitan area largely made good on the moniker through impressive growth and increasing economic importance. Twenty-four years later, though, Miami is ... More >>

Bob Graham Thinks Florida Has Lost Its Way

​To talk about respected, legendary Florida politicians is to talk about Bob Graham. The former Governor and Senator was one of the few politicians to manage sustained cross-party popularity and still looms large over the state as an occasional source of wisdom. Yesterday, the retired moderate Dem ... More >>

More Than One in Five Floridians Seriously Considering Moving Out of State

Well, it could help create jobs in the moving industry. ​Despite the fact the rest of the country has been a veritable snow hell recently while Florida has remained largely frost free, a new poll finds that more than one out of every five Floridians is thinking about moving out of state. That's pr ... More >>

Rick Scott Ends Twitter Town Hall As Soon As He's Called a "Jackass"

Our new gov's evening smoke and tweet session ended on a sour note.​Yesterday, Rick Scott fired up the ol' Interwebs and announced his first inaugural "Twitter Town Hall." Surprise, surprise! He's just as evasive 140 characters at a time as he is in real time.Even still, the event was going just f ... More >>