BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida is on the road to recovery, according to economists.
The state’s unemployment rate in March was 11.1%, down 0.4% from February, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday.
The March rate is the lowest since November 2009 and represented the first over-the-year decline since November 2006, Cynthia Lorenzo, the director of Florida’s Agency for Workforce Innovation, told reporters in a conference call.
“We are in recovery at this time,” she said, noting that 64 out of Florida’s 67 counties saw their jobless rates drop between February and March. “We’ve now had a gain in jobs … for six months in a row.”
Lorenzo said the economic recovery has taken so long for many reasons, including the financial crisis that continues to see banks under-capitalized and failing.
There are still high rates of home foreclosures, which are expected to pick up later this year as some banking institutions resolve foreclosures that have been delayed due to challenges of wrongful closings in court.
The European crisis as well as unrest in the Middle East and Africa will continue to push oil, food, and transportation prices up. That will contribute to existing weak consumer demand and businesses’ reluctance to expand, Lorenzo said.
The recession and slow recovery have prompted some rating agencies to maintain negative outlooks on bond ratings for many local government and state credits.
Fitch Ratings on Wednesday affirmed its negative outlook on the state’s AAA ratings assigned to $14.1 billion of various outstanding full-faith-and-credit bonds.
“Florida’s poor economic performance in the downturn, one of the most negative among the states, reflects the state’s severe housing market correction,” Fitch said.
Standard & Poor’s also rates Florida AAA with a negative outlook, while Moody’s Investors Service’s rating is Aa1 with a stable outlook.
Despite the uncertain recovery, Florida has the potential for job growth and positive long-term growth dynamics, according to a report co-authored by Wells Fargo senior economist Mark Vitner last Wednesday.
“Strong growth will almost assuredly return, and when it does, there is apt to be a better mix of industries,” Vitner said, noting the state’s efforts to diversify the economy and job prospects by building a life-science sector and attracting notable research and development organizations.
“Florida, which has more high-growth industries than any other state, would be in a stronger position if not for the weakened housing market, which has cut into worker mobility,” Vitner said. “The Sunshine State is making important enhancements to its university system to bring in more cutting-edge research, and this should pay off with an even better mix of high-growth industries in future years.”
