(The Center Square) – Six of the 20 cities in America with the “best change in unemployment” are in Florida.
Hialeah at No. 1, Miami (3), Pembroke Pines (10), St. Petersburg (12), Cape Coral (14), Tampa (15) and Fort Lauderdale (20) were at the top of an average national ranking. The metrics split ranking value 50/50 for a community’s unemployment rate against four timing metrics: change in unemployment from August to July, from August 2021 to August 2022, from August 2020 to August 2022, and from August 2019 to August 2022.
Translated, the four time elements are month over month most recent, and August year-over-year for prepandemic and each year since.
WalletHub, a personal finance website, used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to generate input to its formula. The ranking was released Wednesday, just as Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida’s western coast.
Dr. Ernie Goss, chairman and professor of economics at Creighton University in Nebraska, said in a prepared statement, “Rates for the U.S. and for most states are currently below prepandemic levels. It is the participation rates that remain well below” levels prior to COVID-19.
Goss said baby boomers have left the labor market and not returned; parents are having trouble finding adequate child care; and workers concerned about COVID-19 infection are still sidelined.
South Burlington, Vermont was behind Hialeah, and Burlington, Vermont was behind Miami at No. 4. Juneau, Alaska was fifth, followed by Minneapolis, Minnesota; St. Paul, Minnesota; San Jose, California; and San Francisco.
Hialeah, population 223,109, is in Miami-Dade County and the sixth-largest city in the Sunshine State. Its population is roughly 94% Hispanic.
