Lets party like its ...um, 2008. We're still not quite back to pre-economic meltdown levels yet, but Florida's unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest number since October of 2008.

As of last month, Florida's unemployment rate was 8.5 percent. That's down from 8.7 percent in September.



That's also 1.7 percent lower than at the same point last year. 14,700 jobs were added in the state last month, and the overall number of unemployed Floridians fell by 20,000. Still just about 800,000 Floridians are out of a job.

The unemployment rate has trended downward in 13 of the last 16 months.

It's not all good news though. The unemployment rate in Miami-Dade sits at 8.9 percent. That's actually up slightly since last month's 8.8 percent figure, but is down from the same time last year when it sat at 10.7 percent.

Broward County's unemployment rate is now 7.1 percent, a full half point drop since last month.

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