Bay County, Fla. -
June unemployment numbers are in and in Bay County, the numbers are slightly up from last month, but those numbers could be exaggerated. The numbers may not be a true snapshot as the statistics only include people actively looking for jobs, they don't factor in what's called the "discouraged workers" and with that, the real picture of unemployed in our area is higher.
In Bay County, the June unemployment rate is at 8.1%, slightly higher than May's 7.8%. But if you factor in those discourage workers; the real unemployment rate would look more like 9.0%, higher than the recorded 8.1%.
"We've seen more people getting in that discourage category, but I think for our area we've had more jobs getting advertised so I really think that there is still some hope in people," said Maria Goodwin, Director of Communications for the Gulf Coast Workforce Board.
Goodwin says the slight raise in June was expected as school is out. For Desmond Baxter, he know what it is like to get discouraged when finding a job, as he's been on the search for weeks. Both he and Goodwin say you won't get the job unless you look and apply.
"It's been very very stressful, anytime you don't have income coming in it can be stressful. The thing you got to do is keep pushing on take it day by day you just can't get discouraged," Baxter said.
Workforce officials say your chances of landing a job will be higher if you are flexible with what you are willing to do.
Click here for the June Unemployment numbers across the state.
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