The Jobs Governor had a good November; he won reelection and the latest jobs report led him to declare he fulfilled a pledge from his first campaign. The unemployment rate for November dropped slightly to 5.8 percent, down 0.2 percent from October and 0.7 percent from a year ago, according to the monthly job report from the Department of Economic Opportunity.
“Four years ago, we unveiled an ambitious plan to fix Florida’s economy and turn the state around. Our goal was to create 700,000 jobs in seven years. Today our goal was reached three years early, with 715,700 private-sector jobs created in Florida since December 2010,” said Gov. Rick Scott. “I applaud our job creators across the state that sacrifice and work hard to create new jobs. Every job impacts a family and we will keep working each day to make Florida the world’s number one destination for jobs.”
Economic policy is the foundation of Scott’s political career. In his first political campaign four years ago he said his ideas would create 700,000 jobs more jobs than normal growth. The theme of his reelection campaign this year was economic recovery.
The numbers released Friday showed an increase of 24,000 jobs up 0.3 percent from October and a 3.3 percent increase (295,000) compared to November of 2013.
There were 556,000 people out of work in November, down 21,000 from October. The Florida labor pool, the number of people employed and those looking for work, increased by 1,000 last month to 9,661,000,(9.6 m) up 242,000 compared to a year ago. DEO said that Florida labor force has grown 57 consecutive months.
Monroe County had the lowest unemployment rate for the month at 3.5 percent. Hendry County had the highest rate at 9.7 percent.
The Orlando metro area had the largest increase in the number of jobs, a 4.3 percent growth or 46,300 additional jobs. Of the state’s 22 metro areas, Ocala was the only one to experience a decline in the number of jobs; a decline of 900 (1.0 percent) compared to November
