◆ The total number of jobs in Florida

The damage from last month’s hurricane forced layoffs

dropped in September by about 127,000 positions compared to August, according to state data.

Florida lost about 127,000 jobs in September, largely because of Hurricane Irma’s strike, according to state data released Friday.

Jobs in Florida normally subside temporarily in the fall, as the summer vacation season winds down, but the state said Irma’s impact was clear in the data.

The storm hit the Florida Keys on Sept. 10 and traveled up the peninsula the next day.

“Employees who are not paid for the pay period that includes Sept. 12 are not counted as employed … The job counts for the month of September are showing a sharp over-themonth decline due to the impact of Hurricane Irma,” according to the state’s announcement.

“The jobs report has Irma written all over it,” said Sean Snaith, an economist at the University of Central Florida. “The state level data is seasonally adjusted so what we are seeing really is driven by the impact of the hurricane.”

He noted the biggest losses were in leisure and hospitality and the biggest gains in employment were finance and insurance; but he said October should show a rebound.

Some people weren’t notified of permanent layoffs because of Irma until the end of September, such as 206 people who worked at the damaged Pirate’s Dinner Adventure in the International Drive area.

A large part of the roof was blown off in the storm.

Their layoff notice was dated Sept. 27.

The management team for Pirate’s told the Sentinel at that time they hope to rehire those employees as they close indefinitely to deal with attorneys, their insurance company and construction companies. They must replace the entire roof.

“We want to open as quick as we can,” assistant general manager Daniel Latorre said. “It could be two months. … It could be eight months.

The unemployment rate release Friday didn’t take Irma’s impact into account yet.

The state unemployment rate — which is seasonally adjusted — was 3.8 percent in September, down two-tenths of a percentage point from Au-

gust, and down from 4.9 percent compared to a year ago.

Unemployment in Metro Orlando clocked in at a very low 3.2 percent, the lowest rate in 10 years, although that was not yet adjusted for seasonal fluctuations. That rate compares to 3.8 percent in August and 4.7 percent a year ago.

Metro Orlando showed the biggest job gains in the state (24,900 jobs, 2.0 percent), followed by Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (17,300 jobs, 1.3 percent); and Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach (13,000 jobs, 1.6 percent).

Some areas hit by Irma showed dramatic drops in certain industries, such as a 10 percent drop in construction in Cape Coral on the Gulf Coast. The three metro areas losing the most jobs over the year were Cape Coral-Fort Myers (6,800 jobs, 2.7 percent); Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach (300 jobs, 0.2 percent); and Homosassa Springs (200 jobs, 0.6 percent).

Monroe County, including the devastated Florida Keys, showed a rise in unemployment — but not the full brunt of Irma’s impact yet — to 3.3 percent from 2.7 percent in August.

In Orlando, the number of jobs dropped by 10,500 in September compared to August, but it wasn’t clear from the state data if Irma had an effect on that, because it’s not seasonally adjusted.