Daytona Beach, FL – Local unemployment rises slightly as Florida’s jobless rate hits a 7-year low.
The latest report from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity shows Volusia’s unemployment rate at 6% last month, just above the 5.9% posted for June 2015 and over a percentage point under the 7.1% posted for July 2014.
Like Volusia, Flagler’s unemployment rate went up 1/10th of a point to 6.5% in July 2015 compared to the month before. That’s 1.4% lower than the 7.9% for July 2014.
Volusia’s unemployment rate is tied with Pasco for 30th highest out of Florida’s 67 counties. Flagler is tied for 20th with Calhoun.
Both unemployment rates are both over the 5.7% posted for Florida last month, the lowest it’s been since 2008, according to FDEO. It was at 5.6% in June and at 6.7% in July 2014.
The national unemployment rate for July 2015 is 5.6%, which is also 1/10th of a point over last June and just under a full point from the July 2014 rate of 6.5%.
All numbers above are not seasonally adjusted. Florida’s seasonally adjusted rate was 5.4% last month while the USA came in at 5.3%.
In terms of metro area, Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach’s unemployment rate of 6.1% was tied for 9th highest out of Florida’s 24 metro areas along with Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville. The Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach metro area does include Palm Coast.
CareerSource Flagler Volusia says 16,911 residents remain unemployed out of a labor force of 279,297.
The biggest areas of job growth locally over the past year were in education and health services (4.8%), manufacturing (1.9%) and government (1.4%). All those categories grew faster locally compared to the rest of the state.
7 of the area’s 10 major industries gained jobs over the past year, according to CareerSource Flagler Volusia. Those include the 3 listed above as well as professional & business services, leisure & hospitality, transportation & utilities (including trade) and financial activities & manufacturing.
Mining, logging and construction lost jobs over the past year, as did information, while other services were unchanged, per CareerSource Flagler Volusia.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.