Good news, Florida, you're number one in something that doesn't have to do with concealed weapons, or people who get arrested for shooting themselves in the penis!
The state announced on Monday that Florida has begun the new year with a 7.8 percent unemployment rate, which is the lowest since November 2008.
And this is a brand new rate that still has that new-rate smell!
The brand new rate puts Florida below the national unemployment rate of 7.9 percent for the first time since January of 2008.
As for our neck-o-the-woods, Broward County saw its rate take a bit of a dip from 6.6 in December, to 8.1 just a year ago.
Palm Beach County, meanwhile, is at a rate of 8 (which is not only decent, but also rhymes), from a 9.3 percent rate from a year ago.
And, while a lot of this might be due to people just not filing for unemployment because, if you've ever had to do that, you know it's a giant soul-sucking pain in the ass process -- it's also due to trade, transportation and utility industries hiring about 3,500 people in the past year.
It's a good time for Gov. Rick Scott to come out and let people know wussup with all these jobby-jobs hitting out state in the face.
"Everything we do is geared toward job creation. Today we have more proof that it's working," Scott said in a news release Monday. "Our unemployment rate is down to 7.8 percent - falling below the national average for the first time in five years. We have added more than 280,000 private-sector jobs over the last two years, and as we continue to focus on greater economic growth, we will see even more jobs created."
According to the Department of Economic Opportunity, 740,000 Floridians remained jobless.
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