Every state is concerned about jobs. The same can be said of states’ governors.
- Florida Gov. Rick Scott has been trying to bring jobs to state
- California governor says his state has added twice as many jobs as Florida
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has been trying to bring more jobs to the state, but his approach has upset some of his counterparts. That’s because he’s been traveling to other states offering incentives to companies hoping to get them to move.
Scott’s most recent trip was to California. To throw off Scott, California Gov. Jerry Brown compared the two states saying, “California has added twice as many jobs as Florida” over the past year.
PolitiFact Florida heard the claim and gave it a HALF TRUE rating.
PolitiFact writer Josh Gillin said Brown was telling the truth — but there was one caveat.
“What you need to realize here is California is a much larger state than Florida, almost twice as big, and so you would almost expect twice as many jobs in that regard.”
Gillin also said that despite the above statement, Florida’s rate of job growth was a bit higher than California's: 2.4 percent to 2.2 percent.
For that reason, Brown's statement received a HALF TRUE rating.
SOURCES: Brown says California brought in more jobs than Florida in the past year
- Email interview, Evan Westrup, spokesman for California Gov. Jerry Brown, April 28, 2016
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, California Economy at a Glance and Florida Economy at a Glance, accessed April 2016.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates as of July 1, 2015, accessed May 2016.
- Tampa Bay Business Journal, "Brown's office mocks Scott trip to California," April 27, 2016
- PolitiFact, "Florida agency's misleading attack on California's minimum wage hike," May 4, 2016
- Twitter, @GovPressOffice and @FLGovScott, accessed May 2016
- Emsi, "States With Most Per Capita Job Gains Since 2010," May 8, 2014