Staff Report
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The unemployment rate in Indian River County has increased to 15 percent, meaning 3,300 people are without work in the Sebastian-Vero Beach metropolitan area. The unemployment rate jumped 0.8 percent over last month and is 5.7 percent higher than in July 2008, according to numbers released today from EmployFlorida.com.
Indian River County’s unemployment is the worse of the Treasure Coast counties, which include Martin, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie. The overall unemployment rate of the region is 13.8 percent. In the Sebastian-Vero Beach area, most of the job loss has come in the nonagricultural sector. The loss equates to 7.1 percent and exceeds the state’s job loss rate of 5.1 percent.
The majority of job losses came from three industries: Transportation/Warehouse/Utilities (1,100 jobs), Information (100), and Leisure/Hospitality (800 jobs). The three saw a loss of between 14 and 14.3 percent.
The only industry that has seen any growth has been the Professional/Business Services sector, which grew by 2.1 percent – or about 100 jobs.