Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed in September as hundreds of thousands of residents remained without a job — a sign the economic crisis brought by the coronavirus pandemic shows little sign of abating.
And in Miami-Dade, the unemployment rate soared.
The Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday that the state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate increased from 7.3% to 7.6% from August, with the total number of jobless Floridians increasing by 27,000 to 770,000. The state added 47,300 jobs last month, a decrease from the 57,900 added in August and an indication that job creation is slowing.
Nationally, the unemployment rate stood at 7.9%.
The report does not incorporate Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Sept. 25 reopening order, a fact most acutely reflected in the just 300 jobs added in the state’s accommodation and food services industry for the month. The state remains 234,000 leisure and hospitality jobs short of where it was a year ago.
In Miami-Dade, the unemployment rate jumped from 8% to 13%, or by 76,088 workers to 183,595. The county now trails just Osceola County for the highest jobless rate in the state. Some of Dade’s increase would have been caused by nearly 61,000 individuals rejoining the labor force on the month. Still, the county lost about 15,400 jobs on net for the month.
Among metropolitan statistical areas, Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall now has the state’s highest unemployment rate, at 13%. The rate in the Orlando MSA, which had previously been the state’s highest, fell from 10.8% to 9.8%.
Broward’s unemployment rate fell from 9.2% to 8.2%. It added nearly 9,000 jobs on net.
Ned Murray, associate director of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University, said much of the unemployment gains in Miami-Dade are attributable to workers describing themselves as self-employed or who gave no occupational industry. While this would include some white-collar workers, it almost certainly represents a majority of gig workers — everyone from Uber drivers to events staff.
“The percentage of our [unemployment] claimants [in those categories] far exceeds the state average, and certainly any other county we’re familiar with,” Murray said.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 11:23 AM.
