Report: Half of Florida counties lost jobs during Scott tenure | Thumb down

Treasure Coast Newspapers

With almost 1,250 more Treasure Coast residents unemployed and actively seeking work in June than the previous month, the three-county region’s combined unemployment rate increased by four-tenths of a percentage point to 4.9 percent.

Gov. Rick Scott is fond of declaring how 1.6 million jobs have been added to Florida's economy since 2010 under his watch. Scott also cites a statewide unemployment rate that's dropped to 3.7 percent.

Yet a 2017 report by the business-friendly Florida Chamber of Commerce Foundation paints a very different picture. Nearly half of Florida's counties — mostly small and rural entities in North and Central Florida and around Lake Okeechobee — reported having fewer jobs than they did in 2007.

MORE: The Florida Scorecard

Seminole, Brevard and Volusia were among the three dozen job-loss counties. On the Treasure Coast, the report found Martin and St. Lucie counties increased jobs since 2007, while Indian River County lost almost 2,000 jobs during the same period.

In the Scott years, the state's largest metro areas — South Florida, Tampa Bay and Orlando — have seen the most new jobs.

Scott, who is running for Senate against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, dismissed worsening conditions in the state's rural areas as a "Democratic talking point."