Manatee’s jobless rate ticks up slightly, but remains low

Unlike the turbulence on the political scene, unemployment continues to remain low in Bradenton-Sarasota and statewide, figures released Friday show.

Unemployment ticked up a notch in Manatee County, coming in at 4 percent in July, up from 3.9 percent in June. In all, 7,093 Manatee residents sought unemployment in July. In Sarasota, the jobless rate in July was 3.9 percent, unchanged from June, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported Friday.

Statewide, Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in July, also unchanged from June and down 0.8 percentage point from a year ago. There were 411,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 10.1 million. The U.S. unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in July.

Nationally, the number of jobs rose 1.5 percent over the year. Florida’s over‐the‐year job growth rate has exceeded the nation’s rate since May 2012.

In Tampa on Friday for the jobs announcement, Gov. Rick Scott said Florida businesses have created 1,422,700 private sector jobs since he took office, doubling his 2010 promise to create 700,000 jobs in seven years. More than 26,000 private-sector jobs were created in July, Scott said from the Morgan Auto Group, a Florida-based dealership.

“Over the past 6 1/2 years, we have worked relentlessly to cut taxes, reduce burdensome regulations and completely turn around Florida’s economy,” Scott said. “I am proud to announce today that after cutting taxes more than 75 times, Florida businesses have created more than 1.4 million new jobs, officially doubling our promise to create 700,000 jobs in seven years.”Private-sector industries gaining the most jobs over-the-year were:

In a press release, Scott’s office included a breakdown of new jobs:

▪ Construction with 35,800 new jobs;

▪ Education and health services, 35,600;

▪ Professional and business services, 35,400;

▪ Leisure and hospitality, 32,900;

▪ Trade, transportation and utilities, 30,600.

Florida job postings showed 240,443 openings in July 2017.

This story was originally published August 18, 2017 at 10:46 AM with the headline "Manatee’s jobless rate ticks up slightly, but remains low."