Unemployment in Duval County fell to 10.14 percent in October from 10.87 percent in September, according to state numbers seasonally adjusted by Paul Mason, director of the Leading Economic Indicator Project at the University of North Florida.
The October unemployment rate of 10.14 percent is down from 11.55 percent in October 2010, Mason said.
“The dip in the unemployment rate from September to October 2011 for Duval county was actually significantly larger than the one-tenth dip for the MSA as a whole,” said Mason, referring to the Jacksonville metropolitan statistical area of Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties.
“Consequently, it is apparent that most of the MSA decline in unemployment was in Duval County, and in fact the other counties likely have had unemployment that got worse in October,” said Mason, an economics professor at UNF.
State numbers released Friday show that the Duval County labor force dropped to 446,274 in October from 449,163 in September and from 448,178 in October 2010.
The number of employed people fell slightly to 401,439 in October from 402,000 in September, but was up from 397,010 in October 2010.
The number of people unemployed fell to 44,835 in October from 47,163 in September and 51,168 in October 2010.