Florida Unemployment Drops to 6.5% in October

Florida’s unemployment rate dropped 0.7 percentage point to 6.5% in October, according to statistics released by the state on Friday.

There were 659,000 jobless Floridians out of a workforce of 10.1 million people. The jobless rate was 3.6 percentage points higher than October 2019.

The state’s unemployment rate was slightly lower than the national rate of 6.9%.

October saw an increase of 51,600 jobs, according to the Department of Economic Opportunity.

Wakulla County had the state’s lowest unemployment at 3.5%, followed by St. Johns County at 3.7% and Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties at 3.8%.

Osceola County had the highest unemployment rate at 10.4%, followed by Miami-Dade County at 8.8% and Orange County at 8.5%.