Gulf County unemployment improves in March
Gulf County’s unemployment rate dropped by more than half a percentage point in March, as 29 people left the jobless rolls.
According to data released Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the jobless rate went from 2.9 to 2.3 percent, even as the labor force grew by 51 workers, to a total of 5,332. The county’s ranks of the unemployed dropped to 123 in March.
One year ago, in March 2021, Gulf County had a higher jobless rate of 4.0 percent as 206 people were without jobs within a smaller workforce of 5,211 people.
The unemployment rate in Gulf County last month was better than Bay County, at 2.4 percent, and Franklin County, at 2.6 percent.
Compared to unemployment in Florida’s 66 other counties, Gulf was eighth best in the state, tied with Walton, Santa Rosa, Martin, DeSoto, Clay and Alachua counties.
The lowest joblessness in the state was found in Collier, Nassau and Union, at 2.2 percent; Okaloosa and Wakulla, at 2.1; St. Johns, at 2.0; and Monroe County, best in the state, at 1.7 percent.
Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.2 percent in March, down 0.1 percentage point from the February rate, and down 2.2 percentage points from a year ago. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.6 percent in March.
There were 339,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 10.5 million. Florida lost 1.28 million jobs from February to April 2020 and has since gained back all jobs lost, for a total of 1.44 million jobs.
All 10 major industries experienced positive over-the-year job growth in March.
The industries gaining jobs over the year included leisure and hospitality (+157,900 jobs, +15.1 percent); trade, transportation, and utilities (+109,500 jobs, +6.0 percent); professional and business services (+99,700 jobs, +7.0 percent); financial activities (+36,400 jobs, +6.0 percent); education and health services (+26,100 jobs, +2.0 percent); manufacturing (+21,000 jobs, +5.5 percent); other services (+17,600 jobs, +5.4 percent); construction (+14,900 jobs, +2.6 percent); information (+11,900 jobs, +8.9 percent); and total government (+1,200 jobs, +0.1 percent).
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.