According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Statistics, the labor force is growing more slowly and older.  More women and mothers are working today than in the past and minorities are the fastest growing segment of the labor force in the nation.
Most of Central Florida’s latest unemployment rates continued their downward trend to 4.9 percent for the Orlando MSA. This was an increase of 39.50 percent from 1990, the largest increase in the region. For the Orlando MSA, this means that there were 887,776 employed residents and 45,713 unemployed last month. 
 
Osceola County rates continued to drop most significantly, from 7.2 percent in January to 5 percent in August. By contrast, unemployment in Polk County continues to be on the rise, with a record 7.3 percent.
 
Orlando rates continue their trend of being less than that of both the Florida rate (5.4 percent) and the national rate (5.7 percent).
 
Click here to see Florida’s unemployment rates for 2002
 
 
On January 30, 2003, the leaders of the Central Florida Community will come together at the University of Central Florida for the First Annual "State of the Workforce Summit," presented by WORKFORCE CENTRAL FLORIDA. This half-day summit will begin with topical discussions concerning the issues facing today's leaders and an interactive keynote address by Richard Teerlink, former Chairman of the Board for Harley Davison.  For more information on this event, contact Kim Cornett, member of myregion.org’s Communications Committee at 407.741.4389 or kim@mail.workforcecentral.org.

If you want to learn more about these statistics and find tips on how to adapt to changes in our economy go to www.bls.gov.  To view some of the research maps and review the Economy/Workforce Notes go to the Document Center of www.myregion.org.

 
 Source: WORKFORCE CENTRAL FLORIDA