Florida

Florida Unemployment Drops Despite Jobs Lost to Hurricane

Florida's unemployment is dropping again despite losing more than 127,000 in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

State officials announced Friday that the unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in September, down 0.2 points from the month before and lower than the national rate of 4.2 percent.

Gov. Rick Scott said Hurricane Irma was the main reason for the drop in jobs.

There were 383,000 jobless Floridians out of a workforce of 10.1 million people.

Okaloosa and St. Johns counties had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.7 percent, followed by Franklin, Wakulla and Walton counties at 2.9 percent.

Hendry County had the highest unemployment rate at 8.6 percent, followed by Hardee County at 6 percent and Glades County at 5.3 percent.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us