Things To Do In SW Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Florida saw its unemployment rate continue to tick up as 2023 ended.

The state Commerce Department on Friday released a report that said Florida had a 3 percent jobless rate in December, with an estimated 334,000 Floridians out of work from a labor force of 11.194 million.

The rate was up from 2.9 percent in November and 2.7 percent in December 2022, when the number of people out of work was estimated at 291,000 from a labor force of 10.84 million.

The Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Panama City and Tallahassee areas were all at 3 percent.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area had the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 2.4 percent. The Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin area was at 2.7 percent, while the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island area was at 2.8 percent and the Jacksonville area was at 2.9 percent.

Exclusive: Lake County fires three firefighters over 112-minute ambulance response

The highest rate was 4.5 percent in the Homosassa Springs area, followed by the Sebring area and The Villages area at 4.3 percent. read more

Amid wide Wall Street speculation that a trip to bankruptcy court is possible after a judge blocked its takeover by JetBlue Airways, South Florida-based Spirit Airlines moved Friday to reverse the public narrative about its financial fortunes by issuing a positive forecast about its forthcoming financial results for the fourth quarter of 2023.

The company also says it is not contemplating a bankruptcy filing.

“Spirit is not pursuing nor involved in a statutory restructuring,” an airline spokesperson said in an emailed statement late Thursday to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Early Friday, stock for Miramar-based Spirit jumped by more than 20% to more than $7 after the airline released an “investor update”  that reported strong bookings over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. The airline also said it had access to more than $1 billion in cash at the end of 2023 and lower-than-expected expenses for the fourth quarter.

Spirit is the busiest airline at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, followed closely by JetBlue. Both airlines also serve Miami International Airport and Palm Beach International Airport. The airlines’ discount fares have helped draw millions of tourists to Florida annually. read more

A fireball across Earth’s sky and plume of moondust formed within 24 hours as a pair of lunar landers acted out the final chapters of their journeys.

A commercial company’s moon lander that never made it to the moon ended its nearly 11-day life in space burning up on reentry into Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday, and Japan managed to become the fifth country to land on the moon with a probe that touched down less than a day later.

Japan’s success, though, was tempered as the lander was facing power issues after touching down.

As far as the earthly demise of Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lunar lander, its ride ended after traveling nearly half a million miles, although nowhere near its planned moon rendezvous.

“What a wild adventure we were just on — certainly not the outcome we were hoping for and certainly challenging right up front but man, it got really exciting through the course of it and there’s a lot of story to tell,” said Astrobotic CEO John Thornton during a Friday press conference. read more