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Florida Unemployment Figures Worsen In December

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The Associated Press

Published: January 23, 2009

Updated: 01/23/2009 11:06 am

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's unemployment figures continue to worsen.

The state said Friday that 8.1 percent of eligible workers in Florida were without jobs in December, the highest number of unemployed since September 1992.

There were 752,000 people out of work in Florida, where roughly one of every 14 eligible workers is without a job.

Florida's unemployment total is nearly a full percentage point above national average of 7.2 percent, and a jump from a year ago, when the December unemployment rate was 4.5 percent. Locally, counties in Tampa Bay have seen similar jumps from last year.

Pasco County's unemployment rate this year was 9.3 percent (up from 5.5 percent in December 2007), putting it 13th out of Florida's 67 counties. Polk County had an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent; Pinellas County, 8 percent and Hillsborough County, 7.8 percent.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater unemployment rate hit 8.3 percent -- with 111,977 unemployed. That makes the Tampa Bay area 12th in unemployment rates among the state's 23 metro areas and is a jump from the 4.7 percent rate in December 2007.

Flagler County in northeast Florida reported the highest number of folks out of work with an 11.7 percent unemployment rate.

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