<\/p>\n
Joseph Mc Cue came to Florida expecting to do even better than he was in New York City working as an electrician.<\/p>\n
He had a job lined up at a hospital construction site in Orlando, and the combination of zero state income tax and nice weather made the move seem worthwhile. The 45-year-old New York native figured once he got settled in, he could buy a house and bring his wife and three children to the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n
But the job fell through. Three months later, Mc Cue \u2013 who was making nearly $250 000 in New York \u2013 hasn\u2019t even been able to land work in a lower-paid position at Walmart Inc.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I gave it enough time,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of being with my family every night, I\u2019m down here in this rat race where everybody is just trying to make ends meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read: US jobless claims increase slightly to highest in over a month<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Mc Cue\u2019s experience offers a cautionary tale for the once red-hot Florida economy, even as the likes of billionaire Ken Griffin\u2019s Citadel, Wells Fargo & Co and Palantir Technologies Inc continue to grab headlines with high-profile corporate relocations to the state.<\/p>\n
While the US unemployment rate\u00a0has been little changed\u00a0over the past year, joblessness in Florida has surged. It\u2019s climbed more than a percentage point to 4.8%, faster than nearly any other state, and is now among the highest nationwide.<\/p>\n
Job growth has slowed to a crawl amid a pullback in key industries like real estate, retail and tourism, all of which are highly sensitive to interest rates and consumer demand.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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That marks a reversal from Florida\u2019s run as a magnet for workers and retirees coming out of the pandemic, when its economy was\u00a0one of the hottest in the US.<\/p>\n
It also raises questions about the\u00a0viability of the state\u2019s growth model\u00a0as a rising cost of living starts to send would-be Floridians elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the way its economy is set up, Florida just tends to be more cyclical than the US economy as a whole,\u201d said Jesse Wheeler, a senior macroeconomic analyst at Revelio Labs. \u201cIt shares the trends of the US but it tends to exacerbate them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rapid population growth in the wake of the pandemic led to a surge in new construction and\u00a0sent home sales soaring, stoking demand at everything from furniture stores to restaurants.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s helped fuel almost a million new jobs in Florida since 2019, making it second only to Texas.<\/p>\n
Read:
US initial jobless claims rise to highest level since June
US initial jobless claims decline to lowest level in four weeks<\/p>\n
But the tide has turned amid worsening affordability problems, a surge in immigration enforcement and a slowdown in tourism. Net domestic migration to Florida totaled just 22 517 people in the year through 1 July 2025, according to Census Bureau figures, less than a tenth of the peak recorded in 2022.<\/p>\n
And Visit Florida, the state\u2019s official tourism bureau, says the number of visitors fell 1% in the first quarter of 2026 from a year earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re highly dependent on tourism and retail,\u201d said Howard Frank, a professor of public policy and administration at Florida International University.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people aren\u2019t going out to eat, if people aren\u2019t going to Disney, if people are cutting back on discretionary expenses, well, Florida will be hit quite hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Some of the most consumer-facing sectors have been among those recording the biggest job losses over the last year: Employment at furniture stores fell 3.7%, while real estate employment was down 3.1% and headcount in accommodations declined 3%.<\/p>\n
At the Spanish restaurant La Tremenda in the Miami area, Sharell Ledezma has cut staffing levels by about a third since 2024. Ledezma \u2013 who operates in an area with a large immigrant population \u2013 said that in addition to rising prices, stricter immigration enforcement is also keeping some customers away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen there\u2019s uncertainty, the first thing you take out of your budget is going out to restaurants,\u201d said Ledezma, who currently has 15 employees.<\/p>\n
With the money she\u2019s saving on labour costs, Ledezma is investing in other aspects of the business that she hopes will ultimately help boost demand. One example: She bought two big screens in a bid to attract soccer fans during the Fifa World Cup, an investment she says is paying off so far.<\/p>\n
Read:
World Cup is non-event for most Americans
2026 Fifa World Cup: Economic boost will not be felt by all<\/p>\n
The lack of job opportunities in the Sunshine State is likely to become front-and-center ahead of this year\u2019s midterm elections, especially as it threatens to exacerbate what was already one of the worst cost-of-living crises in the nation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Top Republicans like senator Rick Scott have begun sounding the alarm on the labour market, especially after Democrats made gains in recent special elections in the state.<\/p>\n
Floridians will elect Ron DeSantis\u2019 successor as governor in the November vote and choose representatives in several open House races following a state-wide redistricting push meant to help Republicans.<\/p>\n
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Scott, who also served as governor from 2011 to 2019, said additional tax benefits could encourage business formation and put job creation back on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are competing against other states and other countries every day,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cIf you\u2019re not constantly getting better, you\u2019re going to lose ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
While US hiring trends seem\u00a0to have regained\u00a0some momentum in recent months, job growth in Florida has remained stagnant. Payrolls in the state were up only 0.1% in May from a year earlier versus a 0.3% increase nationwide.<\/p>\n
Read: Millions of workers are left out of the \u2018low-hire, low-fire\u2019 US job market<\/p>\n
To be sure, some parts of the state remain resilient. Miami\u2019s unemployment rate has also risen, but by a smaller amount, as South Florida has\u00a0continued\u00a0to attract finance and technology firms like Citadel, Palantir and BNP Paribas SA.<\/p>\n
Global events such as Formula 1 and the World Cup have helped reinforce its status as one of the top tourist destinations in the US.<\/p>\n
The so-called Space Coast outside of Orlando is also growing fast, in part due to the\u00a0rapid expansion\u00a0of Jeff Bezos\u2019\u00a0Blue Origin.<\/p>\n
Efforts to attract more white-collar jobs and diversify away from demand-sensitive sectors like tourism and retail are propelling parts of the Florida economy, but it will take a while for such a push to meaningfully pay off for the state as a whole, said Guy Berger, the chief economist at Homebase.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a hard boat to turn around, and it would not happen in five years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a02026\u00a0Bloomberg<\/p>\n
#Floridas #unemployment #rate #surging #highprofile #companies #move<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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