Floridians are going back to work: Unemployment rate drops to 4.8%

Florida’s unemployment rate declined to 4.8% in January as businesses continued to reopen and key service industries started to see more customers as COVID-19 wanes.

There were still 482,000 Floridians who remained jobless out of a workforce of slightly under 10.1 million, the state Department of Economic Opportunity said Monday. The state rate for January 2020 — just two months before the virus struck down the economy — was 2.8%, an all-time low.

Economic development promoters made a point of noting that the state rate is now below the U.S. jobless figure of 6.3% for January.

But all three major South Florida counties saw their unemployment rates rise between December 2020 and January 2021. Broward County’s rose to 5.3% from 4.1%; Palm Beach County’s increased to 4.8% from 3.5%; and Miami-Dade County’s rose to 8.1%, the highest in the state, from 7.9%, according to DEO figures. There was no immediate explanation as to why the counties saw their month-to-month rates go upward.

The agency said the pandemic had stripped 1,269,200 jobs from the state’s economy between February to April 2020, although the employment market regained 688,300 of those jobs as the year unfolded.

“Jobs are continuing to be added back into our economy, and people are going back into work,” Adrienne Johnston, chief economist for the DEO, said in a call with reporters Monday. “We are actually seeing a reduction in unemployed. People are getting jobs.”

In a note, the agency said the report reflected revised historical data that are part of an annual “benchmarking” process that takes place nationally in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor. As a result, Floida’s unemployment rate for December 2020 was revised downward by a full point from 6.1% to 5.1%.

Despite the month-to-month increase in Palm Beach County’s unemployment rate, the nonprofit job search agency CareerSource Palm Beach offered brighter news on a more granular level.

“We are seeing employment and economic growth due to extended federal relief, increased consumer spending, falling COVID cases and expanded vaccine rollout,” said Julia Dattolo, president and CEO of CareerSource Palm Beach County.

She cited month-to-month job gains in the professional and business services sector, which saw the addition of 7,400 jobs, the most of any industry in the county.

In addition, Dattolo said nearly 65% of the jobs lost in the county during the pandemic have been recovered since the period of highest unemployment in the spring of 2020.

Using April 2020 as a benchmark, she noted there are now 2,118 job openings compared with fewer than 400 a month after the pandemic hit the economy last year.

The county also gained In education and health services (up 1,600), and in leisure and hospitality (up 3,100).

CareerSource Broward had no immediate comment early Monday.

A ways to go statewide

Despite the jobs recovery. all of the state’s major industries are still showing major year-over-year job losses, a sign of how severely the pandemic had damaged commerce statewide through government lockdowns and other public health restrictions.

Here are how key Florida industries fared in job gains and losses during January, according to the DEO:

Leisure and Hospitality: 284,100, down 22.3%.

Trade, Transportation and Utilities: 74,400, down 4.1%.

Education and Health Services: 55,000, down 4.1%.

Government: 52,600, down 4.6%.

Professional and Business Services: 36,700, down 2.6%.

Other services: 31,600, down 8.9%.

Information: 11,100, down 8%.

Manufacturing: 10,300, down 2.6%.

Construction: 9,900, down 1.7%.

Financial activities: 6,900, down 1.1%.

More recent signposts indicate the job market is improving.

They include declines in initial weekly unemployment claims statewide to below 20,000. And in a surprise anecdotal development, the general manager of the Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, the city’s oldest, said last week that many hotels are having a hard time finding qualified workers as they rebuild staffs amid a gradual recovery in the tourism business.

Small business hiring outlook mixed

In the small-business sector, regarded by policymakers and economists as the backbone of the state’s economy, hiring projections are tempered by lower levels of optimism among owners and operators, according to a recent statewide survey by PNC Bank.

“Small and medium-sized business owners in Florida face challenges with layoffs and low hiring expectations, but looking forward the majority expect the growing availability of vaccinations to have a positive impact on their sales,” said economist Abbey Omodunbi.

Those business owners feel more optimistic about their own company and their local economy than about the national economic recovery, he added. However, that optimism is significantly lower than in previous years. Almost one-half of the leaders surveyed received Paycheck Protection Program funding in 2020, and a majority have adapted to new business technologies since the pandemic started.

The bank expects a strong economic growth in Florida in 2021, in line with the national economy.