As Gov. Ron DeSantis nears the end of his eight-year tenure leading the state, the man who preceded DeSantis continues to sound the alarm about Florida’s job market.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott points out “troubling” increases in unemployment numbers in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) March Metropolitan Jobs Report, the jobless rate in all three areas is up at least 1 percentage point year over year.

“These are real people with real families. It’s important to focus on bringing business back to the Sunshine State and support hardworking Floridians so they ALL have the opportunity to achieve their American Dream,” Scott said.

Florida’s job problems aren’t just limited to the areas Scott mentions.

BLS noted that the largest year-over-year jump in the unemployment rate was in Wildwood-The Villages. That was a staggering 2.2 percentage points.

Scott has also criticized DeSantis for not doing enough to bring businesses into the state, which also could be inhibiting the jobs market.

During comments to The Wall Street Journal this week, Scott urged a “real focus on how you solve employer problems” on the state level.

“How can Florida become the state that everybody wants to do business with? Lower taxes, lower fees, a well-educated workforce, a regulatory environment that makes sense. … That’s (step) No. 1,” Scott said.

“Because if you don’t, then they’re not going to expand in your state. How do you go after companies like Embraer to expand, or Northrop Grumman, or Lockheed Martin? You’ve got to recruit companies, you’ve got to talk to them.”

Scott, who was known as a job creator when he was Governor, said earlier this month that “something needs to change” when it comes to reversing the troubling trend.

By the time the Naples Republican left office at the end of 2018, the unemployment rate had fallen from nearly 11% when he was inaugurated to 3.3%, a point below the national average. While he was Governor, 1.7 million jobs were created, and the state’s job growth rate was 3.3% by the end.

Meanwhile, as DeSantis’ time in office approaches an end, joblessness is climbing. The unemployment rate of 4.7% is higher than the national average of 4.3%.

Scott repeatedly has lamented the recent trajectory.

“This is concerning. Florida’s jobs numbers continue to get worse. Unemployment shot up to 4.7% — higher than the national average. Florida lost almost 38K jobs year over year in March,” Scott posted to social media earlier this month.

He described similar concerns in a post last month on X.

“Florida’s unemployment rate is ABOVE the national average, and it’s only GROWING. The latest state jobs numbers show we lost over 43k jobs all in critical industries. Florida had one of the worst-performing job markets over the past year. Our state needs to stay focused on adding private sector jobs and driving down the cost of living — just like President (Donald) Trump is trying to do across the country,” Scott said.

In April, Scott responded to a Wall Street Journal article about the cost of living.

“Higher costs of living in Florida are driving people away from the state. That’s bad for Floridians, bad for business, and bad for everyone. This, on the heels of last month’s jobs numbers, is incredibly discouraging,” Scott said.

And in an interview with WFLA’s Ryan Gorman in January, Scott said Florida’s economy isn’t growing enough.

“If you don’t have a growing job economy, then your revenues don’t grow. And so that makes it harder. When your revenue’s growing, it’s a lot easier to reduce your taxes, which is what I was able to do. We grew 1.7 million jobs when I was Governor. So what that did was, we got more revenues. And every year revenues came in, I cut more and more taxes, and that’s one thing the state needs to do,” Scott said.

A legislative briefing from the Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR) on the state’s long-term economic outlook last year offered further clarity on the long-term impact of evaporating employment opportunities.

Job creation is expected to be just above 1% per year, with an increasingly older population creating further stress on the state.

An analysis from Florida TaxWatch further details a bleak forecast. The report projects Florida’s unemployment rate increasing from 3.9% in 2025 to a peak of 4.4% in 2027, before stabilizing around 4% by 2035.

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