TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - Florida’s unemployment rate dipped in July, hitting an 11-year low of 3.7 percent, according to numbers posted Friday by the State Department of Economic Opportunity.
The latest estimate represents 383,000 Floridians considered out of work, from a workforce of 10.2 million.
The mark, the lowest for Florida since April 2007, kept the state below the national figure of 3.9 percent for the month.
According to DEO Executive Director Cissy Proctor, Florida ranked third among states in terms of overall job creation over the past year, trailing only Texas and California.
“That is a great indicator of how strong our job market is and how strong our economy is. This rate continues to drop, even as more people enter the labor force," said Proctor.
Florida’s rate had been 3.8 percent in June, with Florida one of 11 states reporting a drop in July.
Across the state, the region with the lowest jobless rate was the Fort Walton Beach-Destin metropolitan statistical area at three percent, followed by the metro areas of Panama City, Gainesville and Orlando.
