DeSantis Beats Out Biden: FL Unemployment Hits Historic Lows, Private Employment Skyrockets in Red State
As the whole country has been struggling through inflation and a fickle economy, Florida is doing well and seems to be on the road to a bettering economy as its unemployment numbers dropped to historic rates in July.
On Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the state’s unemployment rate had dropped to a historic 2.7 percent in July, the governor’s office reported.
As employment has grown in Florida, July’s unemployment rate was the lowest it has been since February 2020, before the pandemic began.
Florida has also only seen this low of an unemployment rate three times since 1976, when the state began recording unemployment data.
The private sector, in particular, saw outstanding growth in July. Private sector employment grew by 70,000, the governor’s office news release outlined.
This is once again, a historic level for Florida, since that level of over-the-month job creation has only been reached six other times since 1990, when the state began collecting the data for job growth.
Overall, Florida’s labor force grew in July as Floridians entered the workforce and jobs were created consistently.
“July’s employment data speaks for itself — under Governor DeSantis’ leadership, Florida is thriving. July is one of the best months Florida has seen for job creation, representing an achievement the state has only reached seven times in its history,” said Dane Eagle, Department of Economic Opportunity secretary, according to the press release.
“DEO will continue to support Governor DeSantis’ strategic investments in Florida’s residents, businesses, and communities to continue this momentum and keep Florida’s economy strong,” Eagle added.
But while Florida’s labor force and economy continue to flourish, it is in stark contrast to the overall unemployment and labor rates of the nation.
In July, U.S. unemployment decreased slightly, but is still at a high 3.5 percent, Trading Economics reported.
The number of unemployed Americans decreased, but still 5.7 million are unemployed and the labor force participation rate is at a mere 62.1 percent.
“Florida continues to outperform the nation because freedom first policies work,” DeSantis said. “July’s job numbers represent one of the largest month’s job gains over the past generation and Florida continues to outpace the nation in labor force growth.”
For example, Florida’s statewide unemployment rate has been lower than the national rate for 20 months in a row, the governor’s office press release reported.
However, despite the still-high unemployment numbers and the stark contrast between Florida’s resilient economy and the nation’s ailing one, President Joe Biden has claimed that his economic policies are working.
On Aug. 10, Biden said that the slight fall in the inflation rate and the 3.5 percent unemployment actually prove his economic plan “is working,” he said in remarks at the White House.
“Today we received news that our economy had 0 percent inflation in the month of July,” Biden said.
“When you couple that with last week’s booming jobs report of 520,000 jobs created last month and 3.5% unemployment, it underscores the kind of economy we’ve been building,” the president added.
However, while the national inflation may have fallen a bit and unemployment did not rise in July, when the national numbers are compared to Florida’s bettering unemployment and job creation number, things are not as successful as Biden has claimed.
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