MIAMI _ How bad is the employment crisis in South Florida?
By one new measure, the worst in the nation.
Data from jobs site Indeed shows new job postings in the past week in the Miami metro area fell 51.9% compared with the same week last year. That's tops among all metros and well above the national average of 34.7% for the same time period.
Miami has held the top slot for largest declines for the past three weeks. On April 28, Indeed reported new job postings for the region were off 49.6%. The following week, they were down 52%.
Orlando also has figured in the Top 10 for each of the previous three weeks. Its latest decline in new postings is 48.3%
"South Florida and other tourism and travel destinations have seen the biggest drop in job postings as consumer and business travel have nearly come to a halt," said Indeed Chief Economist Jed Kolko, in an email. "Job postings have fallen most in Miami, Honolulu, Las Vegas and Orlando. The places suffering most economically aren't virus hotspots like New York, New Orleans, Detroit, and Boston but places where the local economy depends on hard-hit industries."
The data flash serves as a warning that the wave of layoffs that has hit South Florida's hospitality industry may not be balanced out by openings in other sectors. The extent of job losses in South Florida is not yet fully known, as state data reflecting county-by-county has not been updated in weeks. There have now been 1.4 million unique unemployment claims submitted by Floridians out of work, state data show.
A representative for the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity did not respond to questions about why the county data has not been updated.
