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For the third straight month, Florida’s unemployment rate has fallen. The newest statistic released today put Florida’s jobless rate at 11.4 percent. As Whitney Ray tells us, while the recent up tick is good news, There are still 200-thousand Floridians who are no longer getting unemployment pay.

Congress is expected to vote on extending unemployment benefits Tuesday. That’s the same day Florida’s special session starts… and depending on the temperament of legislative leaders… could be the same day it ends.

Florida’s unemployment rate is starting to trend downward.

“The unemployment rate is 11.4 percent down from the month ago rate of 11.7 percent,” said Rebecca Rust, AWI’s Chief Economist.

This is the third time in as many months the rate has fallen. Still more than a million Floridians remain unemployed. And there still aren’t enough jobs.

“We have over a million unemployed and at least on the internet, we have just over 200-thousand job opening advertised. So we just don’t have enough jobs,” said Rust.

And while the state waits for the job market to rebound, 35-thousand Floridians a week are losing their unemployment benefits.

Congress seems poised to pass another extension. If they do, state law would then have to be changed to allow our unemployed to receive the federal benefits.

But relief for Florida’s jobseekers may get lost in politics Tuesday when state lawmakers come back to Tallahassee for a special session. They’re expected to bang the gavel… then go home to spite the governor.

But labor union AFL-CIO is hoping legislative leaders won’t be so petty. They say fixing the problem will only take a few minutes, but if lawmakers do gavel and go… they’ll be turning their backs on thousands.

“If that gavel comes down adn nothing is done, I think it sends a clear message to our unemployed workers and struggling families; ‘we’re not as concerned about you as we are getting back and campaigning for our seats,'” said Rich Templin, AFL-CIO Spokesman.

The hope for the more than 200-thousand Floridians that have exhausted their benefits is… that people… will be more important than politics in this highly contentious election season.