Florida unemployment drops to 5%

Gov. Rick Scott says Florida added 1 million jobs since he took office

Gov. Rick Scott announced Friday that Florida has added more than 1 million private sector jobs since he took office in 2011.

He made the announcement as jobs figures released Friday showed the state's unemployment rate was 5 percent in November -- down 0.1 percentage point from the month before.

The November mark puts Florida even with the national unemployment rate for the first time since January.

State figures the Jacksonville area gained 16,300 new jobs and it's unemployment rate declined by 1.0 percent year-to-year.

“The Jacksonville area added over 16,000 new jobs over the year in November," Soctt said. "The creation of more than 1 million jobs in five years, as well as this tremendous economic growth in Northeast Florida, is putting Florida on track to becoming first for jobs.”

St. Johns County's 3.5 percent jobless rate is the lowest in the Northeast Florida and the second lowest in Florida. At the other end of the spectrum, Putnam County rate of 6.5 percent is the highest in the area and the fifth highest in the state.

Scott promised to create 700,000 jobs in seven years during his 2010 campaign. After he was told state economists predicted 1 million jobs would be created naturally as Florida recovered from the great recession, he said his promise was 700,000 jobs on top of natural growth.

Scott backed off the 1.7 million jobs added goal after his election and last year he claimed he met his promise three years early when the state passed the 700,000 jobs added figure in December.

  November 2015   October 2015   November 2014  
Alachua County  4.1% 4.2% 4.8%
Baker County 4.6% 4.8% 5.8%
Bradford County  4.3% 4.4% 5.1%
Clay County 4.4% 4.6% 5.4%
Columbia County  4.8% 4.9% 5.9%
Duval County 5.0% 5.3% 6.2%
Flagler County 5.6% 6.0% 6.9%
Nassau County 4.4% 4.6% 5.4%
Putnam County 6.5% 6.9% 8.1%
St. Johns County    3.5% 3.7% 4.3%
Union County 4.7% 4.6% 5.8%

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