Much attention is paid to Florida's unemployment rate -- which, at last check, hovered slightly above the national average at 8.6 percent.
But there's another figure to consider: the underemployment rate. That's the percentage of Floridians with part-time jobs who wish they had full-time jobs, and the percentage of discouraged workers who've stopped looking for jobs altogether.
From July 2011 to June 2012, Florida's underemployment rate was 17 percent, according to new figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That means Florida ranks sixth among states with the highest percentages of underemployed workers:
1. Nevada: 22.1
2. California: 20.3
3. Rhode Island: 18.9
4. Michigan 17.4, Oregon: 17.4 (two-way tie)
6. Florida, South Carolina and Washington: 17.0 (three-way tie)
For a further explanation of underemployement versus unemployment, check out this blog post from The Wall Street Journal.
