Study: Difficult times for Florida
• Job growth in Florida was only 0.5 percent in 2006-2007, down from a high of 4 percent in 2004-2005 and compared with 1 percent for the U.S. in 2006-2007.
• The industry with the biggest job loss was construction, down 8.3 percent in 2007. The biggest gainers were services such as personal services and health care.
• Unemployment was 4.1 percent in 2007, up from 3.2 percent in 2006.
• Hispanics, and men, were the groups that saw the largest increases in unemployment in 2007.
• Underemployment, including people who are not working enough hours and who are discouraged from looking for work, was 8 percent in 2007, but for African-Americans the figure was 11.3 percent and 10 percent for Hispanics.
• Fifteen percent of the unemployed have been without work for at least half a year.
• In the U.S. as a whole fewer people are in the labor force now than in 2000, before the last recession. However, in Florida, labor force participation has increased. The exception was African-Americans, who never recovered the labor force participation rates they had in 2000.
• Job growth, unemployment, and related statistics have worsened in 2008, so the current situation for workers is much worse than indicated by these annual figures for 2007. As of July 2008, Florida unemployment was 6.1 percent, which was 2 percent higher than a year earlier.
• Workers wages in Florida did not grow at all in 2007, and for the nation actually fell.
• Florida’s median wage, $14.70 per hour in 2007, fell from 27th place in the nation’s states in 2006 to 30th place last year.
• African-Americans and Hispanics have been losing ground compared with non-Hispanic Whites. In 1979, African-Americans and Hispanics made over 80 percent of what Whites made, but by 2007 the figures dropped to less than 77 percent.
• Wage inequality is still extremely high in the state. In 1979 a high wage earner at the 10th percentile earned 2.92 times what the bottom a low-wage worker at the 20th percentile earned no fax payday advances. In 2000, the ratio grew to 3.48 and in 2007 it was 3.55.
• Median household income in Florida in 2007 ($45,794) was 91 percent of the corresponding U.S. figure, and the median four-person family income ($68,494) in Florida was 93 percent of U.S. norms. This is in line with historic Florida performance on these measures.
• Official poverty in Florida in 2007 was 12.5 percent, up one percent from the year before, and identical to the U.S. poverty rate of 12.5 percent.
• In 2007, Florida had the 3rd highest percentage (20.2 percent) of residents without healthcare coverage among the 50 states. It ranked 46th in private sector employer-provided health insurance. The state ranks extremely badly on these measures.
• In 2007 Florida ranked 50th of the 50 states in private sector pension coverage.
• Private sector unionization of Florida workers was only 2.5 percent in 2007, contributing to lower wages, wage inequality, and lower rates of healthcare coverage and pension benefit coverage.
• From 2000 to 2007 the Miami-Ft.Lauderdale and Tampa Bay metropolitan areas had the 2nd and 3rd highest rates of inflation among major metropolitan areas in the nation.
• Miami-Ft. Lauderdale ranked 9th in the country for cost of living in 2007.
• Floridians pay an average of 7.4 percent in state and local taxes, ranking 47th in the nation. However, because so little of Florida’s taxes can be deducted on a federal tax return, the total tax burden for Florida residents is actually higher than it is for a typical U.S. resident.
• Ninety percent of Floridians drive a car, truck or van to work, and almost 80 percent commute alone. With rising gas prices, this puts a heavy financial burden on working people.