Florida's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was at 5 percent for December 2015, down 0.1 percentage points from the revised November 2015 rate of 5.1 percent, according to numbers released Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
The jobless rate is also down 0.7 percentage points from 5.7 percent one year ago.
There were 487,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 9,667,000, according to the release.
The unemployment rate in the CareerSource Central Florida region (Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Sumter counties) declined by 0.8 percentage points over the year to 4.4 percent in December 2015. The region's jobless rate was 0.3 percentage points lower than the state rate of 4.7 percent.
The U.S. unemployment rate also was 5 percent in December. Florida's rate has been less than or equal to the national rate for 23 of the last 37 months.
Local unemployment by county
December 2015, Central Florida counties only.
(Preliminary, not seasonally adjusted)
| RANK* | COUNTY | DECEMBER 2015 |
| 4 |
Sumter |
6.3% |
| 12 |
Marion |
5.6% |
| 13 |
Flagler |
5.3% |
| 26 |
Brevard |
5.1% |
| 31 |
Volusia |
5.0% |
| 34 |
Osceola |
4.9% |
| 43 | Lake | 4.6% |
| 58 |
Orange |
4.2% |
| 61 |
Seminole |
4.1% |
* Out of 67 Florida counties.