Florida jobless rate hits 8-year low

BY THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

The state's unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent in February, down from a revised January rate of 5.1 percent. The new mark is the lowest for the state in eight years. The February jobless rate represents 484,000 Floridians being out of work from a labor force of 9.76 million, according to the state Department of Economic Opportunity. In a release, the agency noted that Florida's job growth, 3 percent over the past year, has exceeded the national rate of 1.9 percent. The state's unemployment mark, which a year ago was at 5.6 percent, now matches the national figure of 4.9 percent, which hasn't changed in the past two months. Gov. Rick Scott, in a prepared statement, at least partly credited his annual efforts to cut taxes. "This has resulted in our private sector adding more than 1 million jobs in only five years," Scott said. In a series of regional news releases Friday, Scott noted that Orlando has led the state in job creation over the past year with 45,700 new private-sector jobs, followed by Tampa with nearly 40,000 new private-sector jobs and Fort Lauderdale with nearly 30,000. Over the past year, the leading fields for job growth across Florida were in professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; trade, transportation, and utilities; and education and health services. The January revision was the third consecutive month in which the state initially reported a jobless rate of 5 percent and later updated the figure to 5.1 percent.