Magic Pot of Jobs

During the course of the last year, 115,000 jobs in Florida have been lost. The most recent statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that 6.6 percent of Floridians were unable to find work in the September. Currently, the national unemployment rate is 6.5 percent.

Data from the Bureau shows that nonfarm jobs in Florida fell by 1.4 percent in September. The state has not reported job gains a single time during the last six months.

According to the St. Petersburg Times large-scale layoffs have increased by 40 percent in Florida so for this year in comparison to last. Although job losses are relatively high statewide, the St. Petersburg Times reported that employment in the Tampa Bay area remains a bright spot in an otherwise bleak economic situation.

Compared to the rest of Florida, jobs in Tampa Bay aren’t disappearing at a rapid rate. The newspaper went on to report that only 3,087 positions have been lost in the area due to mass layoffs or plant closings during the course of this year.

Statistics from the Bureau show that, over all, manufacturing jobs in Florida fell by 5.8 percent in September. During the same month, the Tampa Bay metropolitan area only experienced a drop of 3.3 percent. This has been on of the areas of employment that has been hit the hardest in Florida.

While six of the areas of employment monitored by the Bureau in Florida reported losing jobs, only five in Tampa followed this trend. The industry that lost the most jobs in Tampa was construction, where employment fell by 9.5 percent. The housing market slump has caused serious issues for this sector throughout the state, which still has one of the highest rates of foreclosure in the nation.

One of the industries that has suffering the most in the nation is the financial sector. Employers throughout the country are laying off workers left and right, but not in Tampa. The city actually posted a 0.2 gain in financial activities.

The largest increase of jobs in Tampa in September occurred in educational and health services, where employment increased by 2 percent. Overall, jobs in Florida in this sector grew by 3.5 percent. Nationwide this industry has proven to be relatively recession proof.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 6:57 am and is filed under Job Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.