First Coast jobless rate highest since March

[Patricia M. McBride]

"Things are worse” on the First Coast, according to an economist from UNF.

Posted: October 2, 2010 - 12:37am

By Kevin Turner

Unemployment in the Jacksonville metropolitan area rose in August — from 11.7 percent to 11.9 percent — the state Agency for Workforce Innovation

announced Friday.

University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project said that when the local data is seasonally adjusted, it’s 11.7 percent.

Both the adjusted an unadjusted figures represented an increase from previous months, and both are now at their highest levels since March.

“Things got worse,” said UNF economist Paul Mason.

Mason said the increase likely is attributable to several factors.

“The increased number of people who are returning to the labor force who were discouraged in the past and the increased number of college graduates who are having a very hard time finding a job — there are so many people out there with more experience. And it’s simply the result of reduced demand for workers,” he said.

The project’s consumer price index for August also showed an increase, which Mason called in the report a “sizeable amount.” Before seasonal adjustments, it rose 0.60 from July to 108.79. After seasonal adjustment, the rise also was by 0.60, from 107.96 in July to 108.56.

“After some significant deflation during early parts of the year, there was a jump in the inflation rate nationally and locally in August,” Mason said. “Locally, it was driven mostly by an improvement in the housing market. Both prices and sales went up for a single-family home.”

Mason said in the report that the upward trend in consumer prices reverses the previous downward trend that has been dominant for much of the year. That reflected potential optimism for housing and home improvements, because most of the rise was from housing indicators. But other categories fell, including education books and supplies, down 6.2 percent; infant and toddler clothes, down 8 percent; and lodging away from home, down 8.6 percent.

Florida’s statewide unemployment rate increased slightly again. Figures released Friday show August’s jobless rate was 11.7 percent. That’s up two-tenths of a point from July’s 11.5 percent rate.

Legislative economist Amy Baker this week had predicted an uptick.

Baker told a legislative budget panel that the unemployment rate has been going up slightly because economic growth is encouraging labor market dropouts to again hunt for jobs.

People who are neither working nor looking for a job aren’t included in unemployment statistics.

Material from The Associated Press was included in this report.

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link: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-10-02/story/first-coast-job...