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Florida Unemployment Rate Drops To 11.1% In March

TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) – Florida's unemployment rate dropped to 11.1 percent in March, down from 11.5 percent in February and the lowest it's been since November of last year, Gov. Rick Scott announced Friday.

It's the first time he's announced the state's unemployment rate since taking off three months ago.

"Florida's unemployment rate has gone down for three straight months," Governor Scott said. "We're clearly headed in the right direction, but we've got a long way to go. We still have more than a million people out of work."

Florida's unemployment rate hovered around 12 percent throughout 2010. It began showing signs of improvement during the first two months of this year.

The state added 22,700 jobs in February, but nearly 1.1 million Floridians still were out of work.

The news is not quite as rosy in Miami-Dade County. The unemployment rate in Miami-Dade County shot up by 1/2 of a percentage point to 12.3 percent. Miami-Dade County currently has 157,029 unemployed workers.

Broward County performed much better and saw it's unemployment rate drop .4 percent in March. Broward County has 91,398 unemployed workers.

Monroe County also saw a .4 percent drop in March when it's unemployment rate his 6.6 percent, which is the best rate in the state.

(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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