Unemployment rate holds state in January

   Florida's statewide unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged in January, falling to 11.9 percent, down just a bit from December's rate of 12 percent, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The figure represents about 1.1 million jobless out of total labor force of 9.3 million, the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation said Thursday. Total non-agricultural employment in January dropped by 12,900 jobs from the previous month, but it is up about 8,400 positions from a year earlier. In Metro Orlando, the jobless rate rose to 11.7 percent, up from 11.5 percent in December. But the region led the state in year-over-year job gains.
   University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith likened the job market to a jet preparing for takeoff. The doors have been sealed, seatbacks are in the upright and locked position, and now everyone is waiting for clearance from the tower. Snaith expects that to happen sometime in the next several months.
   "We're seeing movement in the right direction," said Snaith, the director of UCF's Institute for Economic Competitiveness. "This is just the beginning, and our recovery will continue to build over the course of the year."
   Progress, however, will be slow – and dependent, to a degree, on factors such as the price of oil, government cutbacks and improvement in the housing market. Other parts of the country will heal more quickly than Florida. When discouraged workers – those who've given up job hunting – and those forced into part-time jobs are added into Florida's mix, the so-called under-employment rate shoots to 20.1 percent.
   State economist Rebecca Rust said Central Florida was benefitting from growth in the leisure and hospitality sector, which added 32,600 jobs in the last year.
   Orlando, she said, "is up by far more than any other area."
   This is the fourth month in a row that jobs statewide improved on a year-over-year basis. But the gains have been modest and, for the most part, limited to a few sectors.