Florida unemployment

Workers are shifting away from gigs at hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues for higher-paying jobs in manufacturing, warehousing and logistics.

The unemployment rate in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area was 2.9%, while the statewide number is down to 3.3%

The rate fell to 4.4%, meaning 466,000 Floridians now qualify as jobless. Gov. DeSantis says it shows economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

State law puts the number of weeks at 12 when unemployment is at or below 5 percent.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a wide-ranging bill in Nobember that said refusing to comply with vaccination mandates isn’t considered “misconduct” for the purpose of receiving unemployment benefits.

A new forecast released earlier this month by the Institute for Economic Forecasting at the University of Central Florida also says housing starts in the state will pick up.

The October rate is 4.6%, down from 4.8% in September. The labor force grew by 29,000.

While the state has ramped up efforts to push people back into the labor force, it has also seen the number of people leaving jobs jump from 193,000 in Sept. 2020 to 264,000 in Sept. 2021.

The state also saw some improvements in its leisure and hospitality industry.

One of the biggest hurdles remains finding people to work in the leisure and hospitality industries, which were among the hardest-hit fields during the pandemic.

Florida’s labor force has grown by more than half a million people since October.

Judge Layne Smith said Gov. Ron DeSantis had the legal right to halt $300-a-week payments to Floridians from what is known as the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, or FPUC, program.