Jobless rate takes toll on Walton County

Walton County had the largest unemployment jump in Florida in October, according to statewide jobless figures released Friday.

For months, Walton has had the second lowest unemployment rate in the state behind Liberty County. But Walton’s jobless rate jumped from 6.8 percent in September to 7.3 percent in October.

Walton County now is tied with Lafayette County for the sixth lowest unemployment rate.

“Walton County’s (numbers) get artificially inflated because of the season,” said David Goetsch, economist and vice president of Northwest Florida State College. “There’s no mechanism in the taking of these numbers to compensate for in-season, out of season. All you’re seeing is they had a fairly good season that picked the numbers back up and now they’re going back down to the winter rates. That’s all that is.

“There’s been nothing else of significance with regard to employment change in Walton County,” Goetsch added. “They had a really good season, so now it makes it look like an even worse bottoming out when they go out of season.”

Jobless numbers are up statewide. Figures came in at 11.2 percent for October, the highest rate since June 1975 and 1 percent more than the national average of 10.2 percent.

“The numbers presented are bad enough,” Goetsch said. “They’re reaching historic highs. But I’m actually one of those who believe the numbers are deflated.”

Goetsch said they do account for people who were full time who had their hours cut. The unemployment numbers also do not consider people who had highly-skilled positions but have had to take jobs that require significantly less training.

“The numbers, as bad as they are, are really worse,” Goetsch said.

Okaloosa County saw a slight jump in its unemployment rate, going from 7.3 percent in September to 7.4 percent last month.

However, jobless figures for Santa Rosa County fell for the second month in a row, to 9.3 percent.

“If you look at real estate and you look at construction, you’re starting to see a little bit of a turnaround,” Goetsch said. “It’s not major, but just a little bit of a turnaround. You have to remember in economics, the last number to turn around is unemployment. Every other economic indicator will improve before unemployment will improve.”