{"id":225181,"date":"2026-04-09T18:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/225181\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:43:07","slug":"floridas-unemployment-rate-rises-above-national-average-but-economist-calls-it-temporary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/225181\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s unemployment rate rises above national average, but economist calls it temporary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) &#8211; Florida\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridajobs.org\/workforce-statistics\/workforce-statistics-data-releases\/monthly-data-releases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.floridajobs.org\/workforce-statistics\/workforce-statistics-data-releases\/monthly-data-releases\">unemployment rate<\/a> has risen to 4.5% above the national average for the first time in years, according to a monthly jobs report from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridajobs.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.floridajobs.org\/\">Florida Department of Commerce<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Senator Rick Scott called the report concerning, saying in a statement on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenRickScott\/status\/2041942703932342754\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenRickScott\/status\/2041942703932342754\">social media<\/a> that \u201cFlorida must stay focused on creating an environment where our state remains the best place in the country to live, work, and raise a family, and that starts with creating more jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">But Florida State University economist <a href=\"https:\/\/business.fsu.edu\/person\/wayne-hochwarter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/business.fsu.edu\/person\/wayne-hochwarter\">Wayne Hochwarter<\/a> said the increase is not a cause for alarm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now is just a blip,\u201d Hochwarter said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The state\u2019s economy relies heavily on tourism and construction, and Hochwarter said both industries are slowing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-center article-text\">Florida Politics: <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cRight now, people are struggling financially so there isn\u2019t such a great interest in going on vacation, getting into your car, filling up your gas tank, and taking the family on a trip,\u201d Hochwarter said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The state data is delayed. The numbers are from January and don\u2019t reflect the partial government shutdown, which led to long airport lines, or the war in Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI think this is temporary I think we need to see if it\u2019s prolonged and if it extends to other sectors,\u201d Hochwarter said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The report comes as Republican leaders don\u2019t agree on a state budget. House Speaker Daniel Perez has justified a smaller budget because he\u2019s worried about the state\u2019s long-term financial outlook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A special session to pass a budget still hasn\u2019t been scheduled, but lawmakers have until June 30 to get it done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) &#8211; Florida\u2019s unemployment rate has risen to 4.5% above the national average&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[558,1442,740,28,30,29,1320,1422,3603,2640],"class_list":{"0":"post-225181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cody-butler","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-florida-state","15":"tag-florida-state-university","16":"tag-fsu","17":"tag-unemployment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}