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Florida’s unemployment rate has dropped again. Labor statistics released today put the jobless rate at 10.8 percent. This is the fourth straight month Florida’s unemployment rate has dropped but as Whitney Ray tells us, the free fall is likely to stop as state worker layoffs and budget cuts begin.

There are 80-thousand more jobs in Florida now than there were a year ago. Labor statistics released Friday show the state’s unemployment rate dropped .3 percentage points to 10.8, marking fourth straight months of decline. There are now fewer than a million Floridians looking for work.

“This is the lowest unemployment rate since September of 2009,” said AWI Chief Economist Rebecca Rust.

The celebration will likely be short lived. Thousands of teachers were told they were losing their jobs this week because of a billion dollar hole will be left unfilled when federal stimulus dollars run out.

“You see in Broward they are talking cutting 1,400 positions. In Pasco County, a much smaller county they are talking about cutting 500 positions,” said Mark Pudlow, with the Florida Education Association.

8-thousand construction jobs could be eliminated if Governor Rick Scott signs off on a 150 million dollar legislative raid on the transportation trust fund.

“We just got the good news today that the jobless rate in Florida has declined from 11.1 percent to 10.8 percent. We are heading in the right direction, the absolute last thing we should be doing is throwing a wet blanket on the flickering flames of Florida’s economic recovery,” said Doug Callaway, with Floridians for Better Transportation.

And thousands more will lose their jobs if the governor vetoes school construction projects to save more than 100 million dollars. Another 45-hundred state jobs are eliminated in the budget lawmakers sent to Scott. What he does with the spending plan next will determine, how far the job loss will go.

Governor Rick Scott has promised to veto some items in the state spending plan. At the same time he believes cutting government jobs will help create jobs in the private sector.