Florida’s unemployment rate ticked up to 3.4 percent in November, after holding steady at 3.3 percent since April, according to a report released Friday by the state Department of Commerce.
The new rate reflects an estimated 376,000 Floridians qualifying as out of work in mid-November — 7,000 more than in October — from a labor force of 11.015 million people. The labor force was down by 14,000 people from October and 46,000 from November 2023.
State economists attribute the reduction in the labor force to a rise in retirees. But a Florida Chamber Foundation report this year also cited what it called an “out migration” from the state of a sizable number of people ages 20 to 29.
“If we lose a large portion of the population from 20-29, while gaining a large population of retirement-age individuals who are not working, it contributes to a reduced labor force participation rate, which has been the trend in Florida,” the Florida Chamber Foundation report said.
Florida got hammered this year by Hurricane Debby in August, Hurricane Helene in September and Hurricane Milton in October, leading to some temporary increases in unemployment claims. But Jimmy Heckman, the Department of Commerce’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research, told reporters during a conference call Friday that the state has seen “broad recovery” in the past month.