Florida’s Unemployment Rate Drops, Remains ‘Below the Nation’

Florida’s unemployment rate dropped in November and continues to remain lower than the nation’s, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Friday.

“For two consecutive years, Florida’s unemployment rate has remained below the nation,” he announced. By investing in our workforce and keeping our businesses open – our economy has added 28,100 new jobs in November.”

A press release provides further details on this achievement, noting that the Sunshine State’s unemployment rate remains the “lowest among the nation’s top ten largest states and 1.1 percent lower than the nation’s.”

“November marks two consecutive years (24 straight months) that Florida’s unemployment rate has remained below the nation’s,” the press release adds, pointing out that Florida’s labor force grew by 352,000, or 3.4 percent over the last year, from November 2021 to November 2022. That exceeds the nation’s labor force growth rate, which was 1.5 percent over that same time frame. Private sector employment also grew by 5.2 percent, compared to the national private sector job growth rate of 3.6 percent

“Florida’s continued success over the past two years is no accident,” DeSantis said in a formal statement. “No matter the challenges, we have stayed on offense.”

He added:

Florida’s economy is outpacing the nation for the second consecutive year because we have invested in our workforce and prioritized keeping Floridians at work and businesses open. As the new year approaches, we will continue investing in our workforce and infrastructure to create jobs and keep our economy moving forward.

DeSantis has long maintained that Florida has been able to recover economically because his administration took a different approach throughout the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, ignoring the groupthink and reopening the state while others remained shuttered.

As a small testament to that, Florida saw the highest level of domestic visitation in the state’s history in 2021.

“Florida has become the escape hatch for those chafing under authoritarian, arbitrary and seemingly never-ending mandates and restrictions,” DeSantis said nearly one year ago during his State of the State address, urging Floridians to be “thankful that God has blessed us to live and serve in America’s liberty outpost, the free state of Florida!”