St. Lucie County headed into the holiday season with strong employment.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity released its monthly state employment report on Friday, Nov. 15. That day CareerSource Research Coast supplied St. Lucie Voice with three decades of local month-to-month employment data.
In October the county’s non-agricultural, not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 3.6 percent. That compares to 3.7 percent in September and 4 percent the same month in 2018. The state and nation, too, had continuing historic strong employment in October.
Florida’s not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in October was 2.9 percent. With seasonal adjustment – a statistical tool to account for normal monthly fluctuations – the state had a 3.2 percent unemployment rate. That seasonally-adjusted rate was steady from September, but nevertheless the best monthly employment number in the Sunshine State over the last decade.
The national not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in October was 3.3 percent. With seasonal adjustment, that was 3.6 percent.
St. Lucie’s strongest annual employment period generally starts in October and runs to April. In 2017 the county’s not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in October was 4.8 percent. In 2016 it was 5.9 percent. In 2015 the county’s October unemployment rate was an even 6 percent, which was down from 7.2 percent in 2014.
Generally, local employment gets stronger in November and December compared to October. In 2018 St. Lucie’s unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in November and December. In 2017 unemployment bumped up slightly from October to November, but then dropped again in December. The two years before that the county had the pattern of employment dropping October to November, then again November to December.
The opening of the Ardie R. Copas State Veterans’ Nursing Home in Tradition will certainly dull the county’s annual spring-summer employment lull this year. (See related story on Page 1.)
The national and state unemployment rates are calculated using a variety of methods. Among them are random telephone interviews with people in working ages. Those that are able to work and report not having jobs, but looked for employment in the previous 30 days, are counted as unemployed. Discouraged workers – those who are able to work and want jobs, but have not sought employment in the previous 30 days – are not counted in the unemployment figure. Many call this “shadow unemployment,” and it’s inherently difficult to track due to variations for why people don’t seek jobs. n