Oct 16 - Florida unemployment rate hits 11 percent in September

Investors may be cheered by the Dow this week, but people looking for jobs are still in the doldrums.

More than one million people are out of work now and the state lost 360,400 jobs over the year, according to September labor statistics released Friday.

Florida's unemployment rate, which was flat this summer, rose to 11 percent in September – the peak the rate was forecast to reach in mid-2010, according to the Economic Estimating Conference.

"We're ahead of schedule," said Rebecca Rust, economist for Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation, which reports the jobless numbers. That could mean the state hovers at a rate of 11 percent to 12 percent, she said. An updated forecast is expected after state experts meet Nov. 3, she said.

The jobless rate, which represents 1.012 million residents out of work, is up 4.3 percentage points from September 2008.

South Florida lost 77,300 jobs over the month.

"Dow 10,000 and the 'Cash for Clunkers' surge in spending might be giving us a false hope for a strong recovery," said Sean Snaith, economist for the University of Central Florida. Wall Street cheered Wednesday when the Dow broke 10,000, the first time in a year. Seven months ago the Dow was trading below 7000 -- a 12-year low. The record was 14,164.53 in October 2007.

Mark Vitner, senior economist for Wells Fargo, said Floridians are still struggling. "It's clear to anyone in Florida there has been very little improvement. The only improvement is home sales are picking up."

Vitner said the bulk of job loss may be over, but most employers are not looking to hire through the end of the year. "I can't see retailers hiring a whole lot of people for the holidays," he said.

The state's unemployment rate seemed to stabilize in July and August, but actually rose slightly to 10.8 last month, according to August numbers revised by the state. The last time the unemployment rate was as high as 11 percent was October 1975.

Florida's jobless rate is higher than the national average of 9.8 percent. Nationally, jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since January, which shows companies are cutting fewer workers. Job loss is lessening in Florida as well. One indicator are layoff notices to the state, which declined from a high of 4,000 in May to 285 in September. Palm Beach County's jobless rate increased to 11.7 percent in September from a revised 11.4 percent a month ago. Broward County's rate rose to 9.8 percent from a revised 9.6 percent in August. Miami-Dade County's unemployment rate fell, to 11.3 percent from a revised 11.8 percent a month earlier.

Statewide, the biggest job losses were in trade, transportation and utilities, professional and business services, and construction. Healthcare has been Florida's only growth sector for most of 2009.

In South Florida, retail, restaurants and hotels lost the most jobs in the region with some gains in business and professional services in Fort Lauderdale, state and local government jobs in Palm Beach County, and education and healthcare in Miami-Dade County.

Susan Reed, 50, this week applied for a job at ABC Fine Wine and Spirits, which is opening a store in Sunrise and staffing other local stores. "For every position open, there are 70 qualified applicants," said Reed, who formerly worked in banking and retail management.

Eduardo Martinez, 38, has been looking for a job for seven months after being laid off from a restaurant. Martinez said he is trained as a lawyer in his native Venezuela, but wants to live near family in South Florida. "I love it here, but I'm tired of working in a restaurant," said Martinez, who also was applying to ABC.

Florida unemployment rate hits 11 percent in September -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

damn shame hopefully just 2-3 years left of this reccession

And if Nasa don't get an increase of funding that number is going to get worst.

yeah s**t is bad down here job wise

if your not in the medical field in some type of way down here u better look into that