U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek Regarding Florida’s 11% Unemployment Rate

U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek (D-FL) released the following statement regarding this morning’s announcement that Florida’s unemployment rate is 11 percent. According to Florida’s Agency for Workforce Innovation, the state’s current unemployment rate is 1.2 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent and is up 4.3 percentage points from the September 2008 rate. Meek’s statement follows:

“Today’s unemployment rate verifies what Florida’s working families have known for a long time – the economic downturn has touched every community in our state and remains severe. When the nation’s economy sniffles, Florida suffers a severe cold and we are not taking full advantage of a remedy available to heal our state. The Economic Recovery Act that I voted for was meant to create and save jobs, and spur economic recovery. When leadership was needed in Tallahassee to take full advantage of the Recovery Act, it was absent and federal dollars set for Florida’s recovery were left on the table in Washington, DC. While other states were quick to deploy stimulus dollars putting people back to work, Florida delayed and the consequences of that inaction are in part revealed by today’s unemployment figures. I urge the Governor and Legislature to act swiftly by using these federal dollars to jumpstart our economy.”