Local Overal Unemployment Much Worse Than Reported

Traditional part-time summer jobs for students are going to long-term unemployed workers according to local job-placement specialists.

Minorities around South Florida are being hit with some of the highest unemployment rates in the state once you break down the latest Florida Unemployment Data.

When you factor in Unemployed, Under-Employed and Discouraged workers in the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the state Agency for Workforce Innovation, South Florida'' job numbers look even worse.

The latest figures show Miami-Dade's Overall Unemployment rate climbing to 21.8 percent. Broward's 17.1 % and the latest statewide unemployment between the 2nd half of last year and the first quarter of 2011 is 18.8% according to the U-S Labor Department.

Greater Miami-Dade has the highest Unemployment rate in the country for major Metropolitan Areas according to the U-S Labor Departments just released Job Numbers for May.

The big question all over South Florida? Why isn't more being done to attract new business, grow jobs and why did Governor Ric Scott refuse federal transportation money which could have put more Florida residents back to work.  

Coconut Grover Resident Linda Murphy says " I think he just gave away 3 Trillion dollars to the U-S Government that we could have desperately used that could have created maybe millions of jobs.

Ohio Tourist Ashley Heard following the rising Unemployment rate Nationwide and says adds, "I really don't think any changes have been happening for the past 2 years. For the past few months it really has risen and so it is bad".

According to the Miami's  Beacon Council, from may 2010 thru May 2011, Greater Miami saw 3700 new positions. But it also reports another 3000 jobs were cut during the same period. So the net gains was only about 700 positions.

Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation quotes another Job-Tracker, "The Conference Board" and reports there were 246,917 Job Postings statewide in May which was a gain of 42,319 positions over the past year.