Fishkind Commentaries: Smaller Labor Pool Skews Jobless Numbers
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
By: Tom Parkinson

May 22, 2012 | WMFE - The latest figures from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity show Florida's unemployment rate is continuing to decline. The overall, statewide rate for April dropped to 8.7% down from a rate of 9% in March. That statewide figure is the lowest unemployment rate since January 2009 and the state's job growth has been positive for 21 consecutive months.

However, economic analyst Hank Fishkind says one of the major reasons for the improving unemployment numbers is a decrease in the number of people in the labor force. He says the figure to watch, in this case, is the number of jobs created on a “year-over-year” basis and he says that figure is disappointing.