Will Jacksonville's Unemployment Rate Continue Dropping?
A report released by the Agency for Workforce Innovation shows that Jacksonville’s unemployment rate has fallen consecutively each month since January 2011. According to the report, the area's unemployment rate dropped from 10.2 percent in March, to 9.7 percent in April. This news is promising, considering it's the lowest unemployment rate for Jacksonville-Duval County since 2009. The Agency's report also indicated that Florida gained almost 83,000 jobs since April of 2010.
To learn more about this article, visit Jacksonville Unemployment Fall Below 10%.
Continue reading "Will Jacksonville's Unemployment Rate Continue Dropping?" »
State and local governments have been and will continue to drastically cut spending to attempt to close large budget gaps. These cuts in spending have reduced economic growth for the last fiscal quarter of 2010, and appear to continue dragging down growth through the first fiscal quarter of 2011. There are several ways that cuts in state and local spending affect economic growth. Specifically, cuts in education programs. These layoffs and other job losses, as well as cuts in benefit and spending programs may also negatively impact long term growth. Additionally, job losses and cuts in benefit programs impact the ability to spend.
Although the unemployment rate has dropped to 9 percent from a peak of 10.1 in October 2009, most jobs being created do not match the wages, hours, or benefits of the positions that were initially lost in the recession. It appears that the jobs that would trigger individuals to spend and boost the economy are not being created. People are having to accept jobs where the pay and hours are less than their previous employment. For example, Lowe’s eliminated 1,700 managerial, sales and administration positions and created 8,000 to 10,000 weekend sales and assistant store manager positions. This is the trend for most businesses. Even the health-care industry is replacing doctors, nurses, dentists and other health-care professionals with physician assistants, medical assistants, dental hygienists, and physical therapist aides. While individuals have started to accept that they may need to adapt and settle for any full-time position they can get, others are enrolling into programs to learn new marketable skills.
