Florida's unemployment rate drops slightly in May

Florida's unemployment rate in May fell to its lowest level in almost two years, 10.6 percent, which has state employment leaders feeling more confident.

Even the construction industry saw the sliver of a comeback last month, showing a tiny gain in jobs over April, although it's not clear it will last.

The only thing tempering the optimism was the realization of how far Florida still has to go. The jobless rate is expected to stay above 10 percent through the end of 2012, according to state projections.

The Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation released its May unemployment data Friday and the results showed a modest improvement. The unemployment rate fell to 10.6 percent from 10.8 percent in April, which was the lowest level since August 2009. It's also an improvement over May 2010, when unemployment stood at 11.3 percent.

The economy's hardly robust, but employers appear to be hiring more. The number of nonagricultural jobs in Florida rose by 28,000 from April to May, which was the largest one-month increase among all states, said Rebecca Rust, the AWI's economist.

Rust cautioned that job reports can swing from month to month, so economists tend to compare them from year to year. Still, Florida's performance compared with the rest of the country was a plus, she said.

"We did gain more over the month, which is wonderful," Rust said.

Locally, the unemployment rate also improved in the Tampa Bay area. The Bay area's jobless rate fell to 10.5 percent last month from 10.6 percent in April. It was 11.5 percent a year ago. The Bay area encompasses Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties.

The unemployment rate doesn't factor in the thousands of Floridians who are working part-time jobs because they can't find full-time work or those who have dropped out of the labor force altogether. If you include these other workers, the total unemployed and underutilized worker rate would be 18.7 percent, Rust said.

Not surprisingly, people differed on how to view Friday's unemployment figures.

Gov. Rick Scott's office issued a statement Friday afternoon saying Florida's efforts to make the state more business-friendly are paying off.

"Florida is leading the nation in job creation and our unemployment rate has dropped for the 5th straight month, a huge win for Floridians," he said in a written statement. "It is unfortunate the federal government can't say the same thing for the rest of the country."

Earlier Friday, though, an economist at the University of Central Florida was more tempered and suggested the recovery was only "creeping" along.

"We're moving in the right direction – just not fast enough," UCF economist Sean Snaith said in a morning statement sent to reporters.

Some of Florida's biggest industries adding people. Jobs in the broad retail trade industry category, which employs 935,500 people in Florida, was up 1.5 percent in May when compared with last year, according to figures not adjusted for seasonal changes.

A subset of retailing, the motor vehicle and parts dealers category, was up a strong 5.2 percent year-over-year.

The health care and social assistance category has continued to grow throughout the recession and recovery and was up 2.2 percent in May over last year. And, employment in the arts, entertainment and recreation category was up 3.6 percent in May.

Within that broader category, the amusement parks and arcades subset grew particularly well, up 8.6 percent in May over the previous May.

In a bit of a surprise, the construction industry showed a 2.8-percent increase in jobs, according to data not seasonally adjusted. Over a full year though, construction employment is still down 3.4 percent.