Florida Lost 22,100 Jobs in July, Second-Largest Drop in the Country

​Thirty-one states added more jobs in the month of July, and Florida certainly wasn't one of them.

According to the new monthly figures released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Florida lost 22,100 jobs in July, the second-largest drop nationwide, with Illinois losing 24,900.

The state's unemployment rate went from 10.6 percent in June to 10.7 percent for July, while the national unemployment rate dropped slightly to 9.1 percent.

That leaves 987,000 Floridians out of jobs out of the 9.2 million-person labor force, according to the state's Agency for Workforce Innovation.

The agency was quick to point out that Florida has still gained 64,300 jobs since Gov. Rick Scott took office, although you may be aware about the caveat to those new jobs.

The state reports that there are now 44 counties in Florida with double-digit unemployment rates, and locally, Broward County lost 644 jobs from June to July to keep its unemployment rate (9.6) above the national average, while Palm Beach County's loss of 1,429 jobs raises its unemployment rate to 11.2 percent.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach metropolitan area is the 10th-most-unemployed in the state, at 11.3 percent. The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach area ranks just behind it at 11.2 percent.

Strangely enough, it was reported last week that Florida had the largest drop-off in applications for unemployment benefits during the first week of August, despite 22,100 people losing their jobs the month before.

That could be due to the state overhauling how people apply for the benefits, a process that has led to newspaper headlines such as, "New unemployment rules confuse, befuddle jobless."

Now "get back to work" ... if you can.

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