Tampa Bay’s Stubborn 12% Unemployment
From 83 Degrees Magazine the new media of Tampa Bay.

Florida’s job market is sickly, diseased, dying, clinging to life like a zombie is undead. But at least things are barely measurably better in the sunny paradise of Tampa Bay.

The bottom line numbers do suck. The state shed an estimated 17,900 jobs between November and December, and the statewide unemployment rate remain unchanged at the shocking depression level of 12.7%.

In Tampa Bay however the unemployment rate dropped a meaningless 0.7% to an incontinent 12% which should be reason to celebrate. 12% unemployment rate used to be considered a failure, a risk to the political stability of a region and proof of a lack of intellectual capacity on the part of regional leaders. But after reaching a dismal economic Armageddon unseen in modern history it has been redefined as encouraging proof of success.

Becky Busty, Chief Cheerleader with the Agency for Workforce Stagnation and Expensive Hors D’oeuvres which oversees all government inactivity on unemployment issues, singled out the Tampa Bay areas’ bounce back in a press release Friday. “The key to understanding and dealing with our current economic failures is to rebrand the expectation and definition of success” Busty said. “The gains are meaningless statistical anomalies we can use to manage our brand away from a public image of total failure.”

In another positive note that affects very few people, Florida added jobs compared to the same tepid growth in same month last year by less then one percent. Since Florida’s historical peak of employment in March 2007 the state has lost 876,500 jobs.

“The good news is the economy is improving. We simply have stopped defining jobs as part of the economy. The job market will no longer be considered in reports on the economic conditions of Florida, unless we can find a way to twist the data into good news” said Busty.

From 83 Degrees Magazine the new media of Tampa Bay.