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Franklin County jobless picture brightens
Franklin County’s unemployment picture improved in November, as the jobless rate dropped by four-tenths of 1 percentage point to 3.3 percent.
According to preliminary numbers released Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, 16 people left the jobless rolls, which now total 163. The labor force grew by four workers, to 4,889, which is 161 more workers than at this point last year.
In Nov. 2020, as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lessened, Franklin County had a slightly higher jobless rate of 3.6 percent, with more people without jobs, 170, within a smaller workforce, of 4,728 people.
The unemployment rate throughout the CareerSource Gulf Coast region, which also includes Bay and Gulf counties, was 3.4 percent in November, 0.3 percentage point lower than the region’s year ago rate of 3.7 percent. The region’s November rate was 0.2 percentage point lower than the state rate of 3.6 percent.
The region’s labor force was 97,132, up 5,680 (+6.2 percent) over the year, with 3,258 unemployed residents.
The unemployment rate in Franklin County last month was slightly higher than Gulf, at 3.2, and better than Bay, at 3.4 percent.
Nonagricultural employment in the Panama City metropolitan area was 81,700, an increase of 3,200 jobs (+4.1 percent) over the year. The professional and business services (+12.9 percent) and mining, logging, and construction (+5.7 percent) industries grew faster in the metro area than statewide over the year.
The Panama City area had the third fastest annual job growth rate compared to all the metro areas in the state in professional and business services (+12.9 percent) in November 2021.
The industries gaining in jobs over the year were professional and business services (+1,300 jobs); leisure and hospitality (+1,000 jobs); trade, transportation, and utilities (+500 jobs); mining, logging, and construction (+400 jobs); and financial activities (+100 jobs.)
The manufacturing (-100 jobs) industry lost jobs over the year. The information; education and health services; other services; and government industries were unchanged over the year.
“There is much to celebrate this holiday season, including a strong economic recovery and an abundance of job opportunities,” said Kim Bodine, executive director of CareerSource Gulf Coast. “More jobseekers have re-engaged with the workforce and local employers are reaching them with innovative recruitment strategies and higher average wages. We continue to see growth in sectors like professional and business services, along with leisure and hospitality.”
Compared to Florida’s 66 other counties, Franklin tied with DeSoto, Manatee, Pinellas, Sarasota and Union for 16th place, behind Baker, Gilchrist and Gulf, at 3.2; Alachua, Glades, Martin and Walton, at 3.1; Clay and Santa Rosa, at 3.0; Collier, Nassau, Okaloosa and Wakulla, at 2.9; St. Johns at 2.6; and Monroe County, best in the state, at 2.2 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.