Florida’s jobless rate fell as job gains picked up in October and pandemic pain eased

Florida’s unemployment rate fell and job gains picked up in October, a sign that the state’s battered economy experienced some relief during the period.

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from a revised 7.2% to 6.5% last month, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported Friday. That is lower than the U.S. rate of 6.9%. There were 659,000 out-of-work Floridians, down from 770,000 in September.

Florida added 51,600 new, non-agricultural jobs, an increase from September’s 47,300 figure, though still below August’s 57,900 clip. Miami-Dade added approximately 4,000 jobs on the month, while Broward added approximately 8,000.

Ned Murray, associate director of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University, said the data are reason for cautious optimism.

“We’ve been trending in the right direction for the last two months, and the October numbers were

BUT THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC CONTINUES TO HAMMER THE STATE’S ECONOMY, ESPECIALLY ITS CRITICAL TOURISM INDUSTRY.

very encouraging,” Murray said. “With the caveat that ... given COVID infection rates and what that might mean to closings, that it could set us back.”

In Miami-Dade County, the unemployment rate fell from 12.6% to 8.8%. Still, it is the second-highest rate in the state, trailing only Osceola County in Central Florida.

And it may be trending down for the wrong reason: The county saw nearly 54,000 people drop out of the labor force in October. Murray suspects some of that decline may have been primary caregivers leaving their jobs to support their children as they returned to school. In September, the U.S. saw some 800,000 women leave the labor force.

Broward County’s unemployment rate fell from 7.8% to 7.3%. Its labor force gained some 3,000 new workers.

The state’s leisure and hospitality industry added 29,600 new jobs, though most of these were at restaurants; hotels shed another 600 jobs in October. On Thursday, Visit Florida released third-quarter numbers showing a 32% year-on-year drop in tourism, an improvement from the 60.5% drop seen in the second quarter. But the state is on track for its lowest count of annual visitors since 2011.

More than 2.7 million Floridians have filed for unemployment since the start of the pandemic.