Welcome to

Florida’s unemployment rate remains relatively unchanged from a month ago. New labor statistics released today show the rate falling from 12 percent to 11.9 percent. A million Floridians are still looking for work. The new numbers are from January… Governor Rick Scott’s first month on the job… Scott expects the rate to drop and says he just needs more time.

“I’m hoping that I can get the state back to work as quickly as I can. What I’m focused on is not necessarily the unemployment number. The problem is that we’ve got 1.1 million Floridians out of work. So my job is to think about how I can, everyday, get businesses to expand here and move here,” said Scott

And part of the governor’s plan to create jobs received final approval from the House this afternoon. The plan would slash unemployment benefits in order to give a tax break to businesses and pay back money borrowed from the feds to pay unemployment claims.