Statewide

Florida's Unemployment Rate Increased In October

WUFT | By Associated Press

Published November 18, 2016 at 3:51 PM EST

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In this July 19 photo, people fill out job applications at a job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. Tepid income growth and shrinking opportunities for blue-collar workers have kept many Americans anxious about jobs and the economy, seven years after the Great Recession ended. The unemployment rate has fallen to a relatively low 4.9 percent. But many Americans are struggling to keep up with an economy that has been fundamentally transformed since the recession, and is very different from the one their parents experienced. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

Florida's unemployment rate is going up slightly.

State officials on Friday announced the state's jobless rate was 4.8 percent in October. That's a slight increase over the September rate, although it's lower than the national jobless rate of 4.9 percent. The unemployment rate has hovered around the same place for much of this year.

Florida added 5,700 jobs in October. That number trailed behind at least ten other states in the nation including Alabama, California, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Gov. Rick Scott announced the jobs numbers during a visit to Ideal Aluminum, a manufacturer of gates, railings and fences located in St. Augustine. Scott has made job growth his main focus as governor.

Monroe County, home to Key West, had the state's lowest unemployment rate at 3.3 percent. Hendry County had the highest at 9.7 percent.