Miami-Dade Unemployment Rate Rises Nearly 1 Percent in a Month

At 11.8 percent in December, the Florida unemployment rate is the highest it's ever been since 1975. That's up 0.3 percent from November and a whopping 4.2 percent from the same month last year. Miami-Dade's unemployment rate is still below the state's, but the numbers shot up in December, climbing to 11.3 percent...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

January 22, 2010

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At 11.8 percent in December, the Florida unemployment rate is the highest it's ever been since 1975. That's up 0.3 percent from November and a whopping 4.2 percent from the same month last year.

Miami-Dade's unemployment rate is still below the state's, but the numbers shot up in December, climbing to 11.3 percent from 10.5 percent in January. It's still lower than the highest levels reached earlier last year (June saw a rate of 11.5 percent), but the jolt is troubling to local workers.

That's bad considering the other two counties in the tri-county area saw their numbers fall. Broward has a rate of 10 percent, down 0.2 percent. Palm Beach still has the highest rate in South Florida at 11.5 percent, but that's down from 11.7 percent in November.

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