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Tampa jobless rate hits 10.6%; 140,000 unemployed

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The unemployment rate in the Tampa Bay area rose to 10.6 percent in May, while Florida’s jobless rate hit 10.2 percent, according to state figures released Friday.

Both figures are notable increases over April’s unemployment rate and could frustrate hopes that the job market is improving. The previous unemployment report issued a month ago showed a slight drop in unemployment.

According to new figures from the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, the Bay area’s unemployment rate rose .4 percent from its April level of 10.2 percent.

The unemployment rate in the Tampa Bay area rose to 10.6 percent in May, while Florida’s jobless rate hit 10.2 percent, according to state figures released Friday.

Both figures are notable increases over April’s unemployment rate and could frustrate hopes that the job market is improving. The previous unemployment report issued a month ago showed a slight drop in unemployment.

According to new figures from the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, the Bay area’s unemployment rate rose .4 percent from its April level of 10.2 percent.

Nearly 140,000 people were unemployed in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties in May out of a total labor force of 1.3 million. A year ago, the Bay area’s unemployment rate was 5.9 percent.

The Tampa Bay metro area has the 10th highest unemployment rate out of 23 metro areas in Florida, the Agency for Workforce Innovation figures show. The highest unemployment rate in the state is in Palm Coast, which has 14.4-percent unemployment. The Gainesville area has the lowest unemployment rate in Florida, at 6.7 percent.

Statewide, the unemployment rate rose from 9.7 percent in April to 10.2 percent in May. An estimated 943,000 people were out of work in Florida in May out of a labor force of 9.2 million. The state’s unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in May 2008.

Both the Bay area and Florida are faring worse than the United States overall. The nationwide unemployment rate was 9.4 percent in May.

Florida’s unemployment rate is the 13th highest among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate at 14.1 percent, while Nebraska and North Dakota share the lowest jobless rate, at 4.4 percent.

Among industries with the biggest declines in Florida were construction, which lost 17.7 percent of its jobs between May and May 2008; administrative and waste services, which lost 11.7 percent; and manufacturing, which lost 11.1 percent.

One industry that continued to add jobs over the year was health care and social assistance, in which employment rose by 0.8 percent.

The May numbers are a setback for the state.

A month ago, the Agency for Workforce Innovation announced that April’s unemployment rate had fallen by 0.2 percent from March.

It was the first month-to-month decline in the jobless rate in three years, and AWI officials said it could be a sign that the job market was at least stabilizing.

Peter Schorsch is the President of Extensive Enterprises and is the publisher of some of Florida’s most influential new media websites, including SaintPetersBlog.com, FloridaPolitics.com, ContextFlorida.com, and Sunburn, the morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics. SaintPetersBlog has for three years running been ranked by the Washington Post as the best state-based blog in Florida. In addition to his publishing efforts, Peter is a political consultant to several of the state’s largest governmental affairs and public relations firms. Peter lives in St. Petersburg with his wife, Michelle, and their daughter, Ella.

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