FIU gives downcast Labor Day report on state of Florida's work force

Researchers at Florida International University are overflowing with numbing numbers that illustrate the Great Recession's destructive force.

Like 15.4 percent, the average unemployment rate last year for African-Americans. Or 37 percent, the percentage of long-term jobless still hunting for work after six months.

Or this number that sticks out: 918,000.

That's how many jobs Florida would need to create to get back to pre-recession levels. It's a figure FIU calculates by adding lost jobs with the number of Floridians who have entered the labor force in the past three years.

FIU's "State of Working Florida" report, which comes out every Labor Day, said Florida's modest drop in unemployment since March (falling from a modern record 12.3 percent to 11.5 percent) doesn't erase the depth of its economic crisis. Particularly for minorities and low-income workers.

Underemployment, a measure of those not working enough hours or discouraged looking for work, rose from 8 percent in 2007 to 18.4 percent in 2009. Average weekly hours per employee fell from 35.4 to 35 in the same period. Wages for the top 20 percent of earners rose by 1.6 percent last year while wages for the bottom 20 percent remained flat. For those at the bottom 20 percent of the pay scale, the median hourly wage fell slightly from $8.02 to $7.97.

"This Labor Day report shows some of the highest unemployment, underemployment, long-term unemployment and largest gaps between white and minority employment that we have ever seen," the university's Center for Labor Research and Studies concludes. "With continued high unemployment and predictions for an extremely slow recovery or even a 'double-dip recession,' there are few reasons for optimism about a recovery."