Gov. Rick Scott: Florida's Unemployment Rate Lowest in Seven Years

Press Release

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that Florida's unemployment rate dropped to 5.2 percent in September 2015, the lowest in seven years. Florida businesses created 8,700 private-sector jobs across the state in September, bringing Florida's total job creation since December 2010 to 941,000. Florida's annual private-sector job growth rate, now at 3.4 percent, has exceeded that of the nation since April 2012. Governor Scott made the announcement at DS Services in Lakeland, a nationwide beverage distributor that provides bottled water, office coffee and water filtration services to over one million customers. D.S. Services has already created 355 jobs in Polk County and plans to add 100 more jobs by the end of the year.

Governor Rick Scott said, "Today's announcement that Florida businesses added 8,700 new jobs last month and our unemployment rate is at the lowest level in seven years is great news. By working to diversify our economy, we want to make Florida first for job creation so families have more opportunities in Florida than in any other state to live their dreams."

Jesse Panuccio, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, said, "This month brought more good news for Florida's economy as the unemployment rate fell again and thousands more jobs were added. The number of unemployed individuals is also at a seven-year low, and there are more than 267,000 job openings across the state. Because of Florida's pro-growth policies, we have one of the top-performing economies in the nation."

Tom Harrington, CEO of DS Services, said, "We are very excited about the opening of our new state of the art facility in Lakeland. It has been three years in the making, and we appreciate the partnership we have experienced with Enterprise Florida who have assisted us in this process. With over 350 associates and 33 managers, supervisors and directors already hired, we are well on our way to having our new facility staffed and ready to serve our customers."

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