Florida needs 900,000 jobs

The impact of the recession on Florida's labor market continues to linger and likely will for years, as the state needs 900,000 more jobs just to return to the peak.

State economists say 515,100 jobs have been lost since the peak during the boom. But Florida's prime working-age population is forecast to add 2,900 people per month, so it would take 900,000 jobs for the same percentage of the total population to be working as it was at the peak.

In a report published Aug. 21, economists with the Florida Legislature Office of Economic & Demographic Research say Florida's unemployment rate has dropped from 9.4% in December 2011 to 7.1% in July.

But if the labor participation rate had held steady since December 2011, the unemployment rate in July would have been 8.2%. Economists say nearly half of the drop in the unemployment rate is due to people dropping out of the labor force or delaying their entry.

The good news is that population growth is the state's primary economic engine. Florida is on track to break the 20 million-population mark in 2016, surpassing New York as the third most-populous state.