The unemployment rate in Miami-Dade county rose to a staggering 14.4 percent in the month of August, the Agency for Workforce Innovation reported today. That's a full one percent jump since last month and a 2.8 percent jump since August 2009. Basically, 188,000 are hopelessly unemployed Lloyds and there's not telling if things will get better.
The overall unemployment rate in Florida was 11.7 percent, a slight 0.2 percent jump from July. That just under the March unemployment rate of 11.8 percent which was the highest state-wide rate of all time.
State numbers however are seasonally adjusted, while the county numbers are not. So the staggering rate may reflect natural fluctuations in the job market.
There is also some good news:
"Although Florida's unemployment rate has slightly increased, there are still positive indicators ofMiami-Dade also gained 10,000 non-farm jobs in the month, but the working population grew at a rate higher than job creation.recovery. This is the second consecutive month with an increase in the number of jobs from the
previous year," said AWI Director Cynthia R. Lorenzo. "Historically, mixed signals from economic
indicators during the bottom of a recession are common until the economy recovers. Fluctuations in
rates of unemployment and job growth are typical examples."