Florida's unemployment rate fell sharply to 10.3 percent in October, reaching the lowest level in 28 months, state officials reported Friday.

Over the month, Florida gained a net 9,500 jobs, pushing the state up 106,900 jobs since January and 93,900 jobs compared to a year ago.

The jobless rate, down from 10.6 percent in September, represents about 955,000 unemployed Floridians out of a labor force of 9.2 million.

Since peaking at 12 percent last December, Florida's jobless rate has slowly and steadily improved. However, it still remains far higher than the national rate of 9 percent and nowhere near what would be considered a more healthy rate of 6 percent or below.

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