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Some good news as we enter the holiday season. Florida’s unemployment rate is at a 28 month low. Labor statistic released today show unemployment fell to 10.3 percent in October as the state added 95-hundred jobs. As Whitney Ray tells us, the decrease comes as retailers are hiring 35-thousand seasonal workers for the holiday shopping season.

A job is on many wish lists this holiday season, and the timing may be just right. Retailers are expecting a slight increase in sales and plan to add more seasonal jobs

“Retailers are adding 35-thousand, 35-thousand, seasonal jobs, for Floridians this year,” said Florida Retail Federation President Rick McAllister.

4-thousand of those are JC Penney jobs. That’s 20 percent more than last year. Store Manager Ken Dehart says some of those positions will become permanent.

“I can stand here and honestly say in 28 years in the business, all in stores, I have never had to dismiss truly outstanding associate from our stores,” said JC Penney Tallahassee Store Manager Ken Dehart.

Florida’s unemployment rate hit a 28th month low Friday, down from 10.6 percent to 10.3. But the celebration will be short lived. There are still 955-thousand people out of work.

That means competition for the seasonal positions will be fierce, with many overqualified people in the hunt.

Department of Economic Opportunity Chief Economist Rebecca Rust says even if some of those overqualified seasonal workers land fulltime positions they could still be counted as underemployed.

“They could receive a higher wage job if the economy had openings available, so in that case, yes, it would still be considered underemployed,” said Rust.

If you count the underemployed and the people who’ve stopped looking for jobs, Florida’s unemployment rate climbs to 18.2 percent. The good news is, for 10 months it’s has been improving. Holiday hiring technically begins in October so some of those jobs are showing up in today release.