County jobless rate hits 11.6%

April’s spread of the coronavirus cost St. Johns County more than 20,000 jobs and pushing its unemployment rate from 3.7% in March to 11.6% in April.

Floridians were ordered to stay at home because of the pandemic, which meant a loss of 1,254,000 jobs in the state. Florida’s unemployment rate is at 12.9%, up from 4.3% in March and 2.8% in February.

The national unemployment rate reached 14.7% in April, up from 3.5% in February

The numbers were released by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity on Friday.

The St. Johns County employment number was at 106,702 for April, down from 128,229 in March. The labor force also dropped to 120,714 in April from 133,173 in March.

Osceola has the highest jobless rate in the state with 20.3% and Lafayette has the lowest at 5.5%.

Florida’s service industry lost more than 1 million jobs. Leisure and hospitality lost 485,000 jobs.