Unemployment

That's down from 3.2% in March. Gov. DeSantis said Florida picked up about 57,000 private-sector jobs last month.

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.

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.

Sen. Anna Eskamani says this includes delayed processing and people getting locked out of their accounts.

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

An estimated 530,000 Floridians were out of work in July from a workforce of 10.48 million.

Florida’s June unemployment rate is up slightly from the month before. Statistics released by the state Friday show June's unemployment rate was rate 5%, up 0.1 percentage point from May.

The state’s unemployment rate now stands at 4.9% as some industries continue to report that people are slow to return to work.

An estimated 503,000 people qualified as unemployed in May, up from 488,000 a month earlier.