Walton County has lowest unemployment rate in Florida

[SoWalSally]

http://www.waltonsun.com/news/walton_2072___article.html/unemployment_county.html

Although the national and state economies have taken a beating over the past year, residents of Walton County are still finding jobs.
According to a recent statistical release from the U.S. Department of Labor, Walton held a 3.7 percent unemployment rate for the month of July ? the lowest in Florida.
The average unemployment rate for the state was 6.1 percent, which is nearly double what it was two years ago and the highest it has been in 13 years.
Although the unemployment rate is up slightly in Walton County from December when it was just under three percent, the number is still lower than Okaloosa and Bay Counties by more than a point.
Walton County Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Dawn Moliterno credits this feat to great planning.
?When the market inflated I think Walton businesses were smart about the way they (handled things),? she said. ?When the economics changed we were able to withstand that unemployment rate not having to have those layoffs.?
Moliterno also gave county officials credit.
?We have had great leadership in businesses and county officials in how they?ve gone about planning Walton County,? she said. ?It speaks to the fact that we are taking our local homegrown graduates and finding jobs for them.
?In a time where there are significant budget cuts, our school district has had to hire more teachers.?
With jobs available, many new people have made Walton their home in recent years. In fact, between 2000 and 2007 the county has seen an increase in its population by more than 12,000 people ? an increase of 30 percent, which ranks as the ninth fastest growing county in Florida and the 79th in the nation.
While the majority of the growth has stemmed from the labor force tied to tourism in South Walton, Commissioner Cindy Meadows still feels there is great opportunity expand industry throughout the county and also be environmentally progressive.
?We have the natural resources that will eventually bring people here,? she said. ?I?d like to see this area bring in some green industries.
?We should look to the industries that focus on solar panels, produce water saving devices and are building electric cars.?
Meadows said both the addition of a new airport in Panama City and the growth north of Choctawhatchee Bay gives the area a great opportunity to economically capitalize in areas that are struggling.
?The businesses that spawn off the airport and green industries would flow into the DeFuniak (Springs) and Freeport areas,? she said. We need to be more proactive and need to send experts in these fields to conferences (pertaining to green industry).
?A lot of the Generation X?ers are really involved with that. We need to get them involved with looking at the future (of Walton County). We have to diversify beyond just one economic engine in the county.?

 

[NightAngel]

I found that article to be a joke. There have been so many closings in south walton county of small shops and restaurants. It took my 18 year old son almost 8 months to find a job and he even applied to some places 2 and 3 times.
My oldest son finally moved to Panama City Beach for work so I would love to know who padded those figures. I have lived here for almost 30 years and this has been the least amount of jobs in this area since my oldest was a baby and I know several guys in the construction trade that had to move due to lack of jobs in the area so I am not buying that article.

 

[SoWalSally]

I found that article to be a joke. There have been so many closings in south walton county of small shops and restaurants. It took my 18 year old son almost 8 months to find a job and he even applied to some places 2 and 3 times.
My oldest son finally moved to Panama City Beach for work so I would love to know who padded those figures. I have lived here for almost 30 years and this has been the least amount of jobs in this area since my oldest was a baby and I know several guys in the construction trade that had to move due to lack of jobs in the area so I am not buying that article.

What you say backs up the article. A lower unemployment rate means fewer jobs. Although the article mentions July figures, which is high season, unemployment is higher in Winter around here.

 

[SHELLY]

I found that article to be a joke.

How so? The person who wrote the article and everyone he interviewed had jobs--so it's all good...no?


.

 

[full time]

While I appreciate Commissioner Meadows' vision, the article makes it sound a little dreamy without much substance. It seems to me that the County for the last decade has looked to St Joe for leadership on economic growth and planning. That leadership is now MIA and the County has done little to fill the vacuum. There needs to be some focus on the infrastructure that currently exist, how its going to be maintained and hopefully prosper. The County needs to concentrate on reducing tax burdens and becoming less bureaucratic. The County needs to expand its ties with the major resorts like Sandestin, Top'sil, Seaside, Watercolor/Watersound, Rosemary, Alys and find ways to support and expand the appeal of those brands so that they become more than summer destinations. The County should be supportive of, not a burden to, successful events like the Seaside half marathon and the Seabreeze Jazz Festival.

 

[Mango]

I think one needs to read between the lines. Ms Meadows is spot on. By bringing more businesses to the area with specialized industries, Topsail, Sandestin et al; would be used as conference centers and thus create more jobs in planning, food preparation, maintenance of the facilities, more revenue to the County to pay for infrastructure improvements. This would expand to the outlaying areas North of the Bay in requiring additional businesses of all types to support the growth required for these additional employees.

 

[GoodWitch58]

I agree that the County has relied too much on St. Joe and others. I would like to see a robust Economic Development program that would bring more business to the County.

We are fortunate to have a railroad; a port; and an Interstate highway in the County, and lots of land that is (relatively) cheap. And, we are near the world's largest Air Force Base on the West; an AF and Navy base on the Southeast; and an Army base to the North; yet, Walton has few, if any, companies that support the military needs--most of which could be clean industry.

We have few businesses of any sort that employ very many people. I agree with Comm. Meadows, we could have "green" business...we could do more to expand beyond tourism.

The question is why haven't we done this?

 

[Alicia Leonard]

For the unemployment rate to be higher in mid season than was reported in Dec. 07, concerns me. I'd like to see what those figures will be in Dec 08.

 

[scooterbug44]

I know lots of folks struggling or in the unemployment line who were previously employed full time, not seasonal, so I am wondering what it will be like now that the season is over.

Isn't there something where they don't count you if you've been out of work for more than a certain period of time?

 

[SHELLY]

I know lots of folks struggling or in the unemployment line who were previously employed full time, not seasonal, so I am wondering what it will be like now that the season is over.

Isn't there something where they don't count you if you've been out of work for more than a certain period of time?

http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.c...statistics-part-1-the-real-unemployment-rate/

THREE CARD MONTE WITH THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

In 1983 President Reagan needed his economic plan to look robust. So he lumped 1.5 million U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine service personnel in with the civilian workforce. Overnight the unemployment rate was reduced by .2%.

In 1994 President Clinton employed a different approach. He re-defined marginally attached and discouraged workers. After 1994 a worker was NOT considered unemployed if he or she had given up hope and had not looked for a job in the last four weeks or was employed part-time but wanted full time employment. Really? If you have been out of work for a year and want gainful employment but have given up hope you are suddenly not there?

Again this skews the number in favor of the government. For example if your workforce is 10 million with 100,000 unemployed workers, your unemployment rate is 1%. Add 1 million marginally and discouraged workers to the workforce but do not include them as unemployed and your rate drops to .9%. Nice slight of hand, but these workers still need a paycheck.

Who are these ?marginally attached? and ?discouraged workers?? In May 2008 a little more than 1.4 million people were marginally added to the workforce, but were not considered unemployed. 412,000 were classified as ?discouraged workers?. Remember they are the workers not currently looking for work because they believed no jobs were available for them. That really sounds like they ARE unemployed.

One million people were marginally attached to the labor force because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons like school or family responsibilities. That sounds like they should NOT be part of the workforce.

If the ?official unemployment rate? is 5.7%, it is reasonable to assume that 94.3% of the workforce is employed. But no, included in that 94.3% are people who do not have jobs such as the 1.4 million ?discouraged? or ?marginally attached? workers.

With all of this statistical manipulation you cannot compare the ?official unemployment rate? in the U.S. with any other country or historically with any past rate for the United States. The current official rate would have to be adjusted to take into consideration all historical variances and definitional changes.

Interestingly no one even discusses this. Everyone assumes that the ?official rate? accurately projects the number of unemployed workers compared to the total workforce. No, that number is found in footnote U-6 of Table 12 to the report.

We really ought to be more honest with our statistics.