South Florida continues to struggle with a stubborn unemployment rate which at the end of June rose to 9.5 percent in Broward County, up 9.0 percent from May, and 13.9 percent in Miami-Dade an increase from 13.7 in May. Statewide, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10.6 percent, but above the national average of 9.2 percent. Miami-Dade’s unemployment rate is the highest it has been in the state since 1975.

 In South Florida there has been no ease in the flood of applications, especially from recent college graduates, but there are just not enough jobs to satisfy the growing demand. A recent National Weekly survey indicated just over 40 percent of 2011 college graduates have secured employment in the region, and these graduates have been sending out an average of eight applications weekly.

 One factor contributing to the latest job report is the seasonal decline in jobs in the agricultural and educational sectors. However, while in former years this seasonal decline was buoyed by increase in manufacturing, construction and government administrative jobs, this has not been the case over the past two years. In fact, the June report reflected another decline in government sector jobs and manufacturing jobs, although there was a slight improvement in jobs in the construction sectors, once one of the strongest employment sectors in the region.

Miami-Dade County added 12,700 new non-agricultural jobs over the last year, an increase of 1.3 percent - the largest increase in the state. However, this gain was offset by a lost of 12,300 jobs in local government and the service sector. Broward also experienced a significant loss of 12,500 jobs, mostly in the two latter sectors.

At the end of June in Miami-Dade, 182,279 people were estimated to be unemployed, although this could be higher considering unemployed individuals who have given up their job search out of frustration. In May there were a reported 181,376 unemployed individuals. In Broward the number of unemployed individuals rose from 88,633 in May to 94,075 in June.

Brenda Faloon, a manpower consultant to the state government, is not optimistic about any serious growth in wither the state’s or the region’s employment. “For years the prosperity in the state’s employment was driven by the booming South Florida construction sector, which carried service sector jobs on its coattails . Now that the construction company has seriously declined, its will take time for the other sectors to catch up. This a reality, even with the initiatives being undertaken by the Gov. Scott administration to improve the state’s employment.”

Although unemployment remains high in the state, Florida’s unemployment rate has steadily improved over the 11.4 percent it reached in June, 2010. Fifty-three thousand new jobs have been created in the state over the past year.

Derrick Mahibir of a Miami economic think-tank is concerned that measures taken by the federal government t to reduce the nation’s deficit could have a negative effect on South Florida’s employment. Any measure that has a possible negative impact on Medicare or Social Security benefits will affect the demand for employees in healthcare, and increase in taxes could affect the demand for services in sectors like the leisure industry. It/s a very tense economic environment nationally, but it’s really more jittery in South Florida. Right now the state and the region needs every incentive it can get.”