Florida’s Unemployment Drops 2.1 Percentage Points

Governor Rick Scott announced at the end of January 2012 that Florida’s unemployment rate went down again in the last month of 2011 to 9.9 percent. A total of 5,100 new private-sector jobs were also added in December, solidifying Florida’s status as one of the nation’s leaders in job creation last year.
Since Governor Scott took office, the state’s unemployment rate has dropped 2.1 percentage points, from a high of 12 percent in December 2010, to the first single-digit unemployment rate in more than two-and-a-half years in December 2011.

“A good way to judge the direction of Florida’s economy is to look at the percentage of people who were unemployed one year ago and now have jobs,” said Governor’s Scott. “Today that number is 2.1 percentage points lower than it was in 2010, meaning more of Florida’s families are finding jobs. It is my goal to give every Floridian who wants a job the opportunity to get to work.”

Since January 2011, more than 12 private sector jobs have been created for every public-sector job lost, and Florida businesses have created 141,500 private-sector jobs with an average of 12,800 jobs per month.