Brevard Unemployment Rises Despite Statewide Drop

By  //  March 17, 2014

Brevard's Unemployment Rises Despite 1,081 new jobs

ABOVE VIDEO: Tim Morgan, Brevard Workforce Career Center Manager offers a tour of the Rockledge office. Today’s unemployment report revealed Brevard County’s unemployment raised to 7.0%.

Image courtesy of Florida DEO
Image courtesy of Florida DEO

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA —According to the latest labor statistics Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Brevard County’s unemployment rate is defying the statewide trend, as Brevard County’s unemployment rate raised to 7%, a raise of 0.4% from December 2013 to January 2014.

Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in January 2014.

According to the DEO, the state’s January rate was the lowest since June 2008 when it was 6.0 percent. There were 581,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 9,454,000. The U.S. unemployment rate was 6.6 percent in January. Florida’s unemployment rate was 0.5 percentage point lower than the U.S. rate and was below the national rate for the sixth consecutive month.

In Brevard County, the labor force participation increased from 259,140 in December 2013, to 261, 288, for a gain of 2,148 in the labor foce, but the number of employed Brevard residents increased from 241,973 in December 2013, to 243,054, for a gain of 1,081 jobs. Brevard’s unemployment rate is the sixth-highest out of Florida’s 22 Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Metropolitan Divisions.

Florida’s seasonally adjusted total nonagricultural employment was 7,678,000 in January 2014, a decrease of 2,600 jobs (less than 0.1 percent) over the month. Compared to January a year ago, the number of jobs in the  state was up by 192,800, an increase of 2.6 percent. Nationally, the number of jobs was up 1.7 percent over the year. Florida’s annual job growth rate has exceeded or been equal to the nation’s rate since March 2012.

More Statistics from Florida DEO

  • Florida’s unemployment rate has declined month over month for the last 20 months.
  • Florida’s private sector job growth month-to-month has been positive for 31 consecutive months. 
  • Florida has created 503,500 new private sector jobs since December 2010, and increase of 40,700 from the original estimate.
  • With the benchmarked data, Florida added 40,700 additional private sector jobs from Dec. 2010 – Dec. 2013 from the original estimate of 462,100 jobs.
  • Florida job postings compiled by the Help Wanted OnLine data series from The Conference Board showed 278,717 openings in February 2014, an all-time high in the data series that began in May 2005.

Home Sales Robust

  • Home sales remain robust as the backlog of existing homes on the market is down by 32.5 percent from December 2011 (Florida Realtors).
  • Florida median home prices were up 12.1 percent over the year in January 2014.
  • Florida housing starts were up 5.9 percent over the year in January 2014.

Economic Growth Trends Up Across State

  • A recent U.S. Census Survey reported that Florida experienced an influx of people moving into the state. Florida also led the nation in migrations from Puerto Rico.
  • Florida is running a trade surplus of over $18 billion – with $90.4 billion in exports and $71.8 billion in imports in 2012, up from $86.8 billion in exports in 2011 and $62.4 billion in imports in 2011.

Workforce Boards Assisting in Employment

  • In January, Florida’s 24 Regional Workforce Boards reported more than 38,800 Floridians were placed in jobs. An individual who receives employment and training assistance through a One-Stop Career Center and finds a job within 180 days is deemed a placement and may be reported by a regional workforce board. Of these individuals, 10,106 previously received Reemployment Assistance.
  • In February, Florida’s 24 Regional Workforce Boards reported more than 37,900 Floridians were placed in jobs. An individual who receives employment and training assistance through a One-Stop Career Center and finds a job within 180 days is deemed a placement and may be reported by a regional workforce board. Of these individuals, 9,620 previously received Reemployment Assistance.
  • In 2013, more than 479,000 Floridians were placed in jobs, with 135,384 former claimants finding employment.