Another 75,000 Workers Lose Their Jobs In Fla.

BRENT KALLESTAD

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Another 75,000 Floridians lost jobs in February as the ranks of the state's unemployed swelled to its highest number in 33 years.

The Florida unemployment rate shot up to 9.4 percent in February, its highest since 1976 when an inflationary economy helped Democrat Jimmy Carter unseat Republican President Gerald Ford.

The Agency for Workforce Innovation said Friday that 874,000 were jobless last month, which figures to almost one of 10 eligible workers in Florida. AWI said the high unemployment rate in Florida can be traced largely to the loss of 115,000 construction jobs across the state as a result of the declining housing market.

Private education and health care were the only areas that saw some job growth, mostly in metropolitan areas.

Florida reported a 4.6 unemployment rate in February of 2008 when 422,000 workers were jobless.

The state's unemployment increased by nearly a full percentage point between January and February and stands at 1.3 percentage points above the national unemployment rate of 8.1 percent.