Storm forecasters have further downgraded predictions a little more than a month into the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, which has so far produced a single named tropical system.

For a season initially anticipated to be “somewhat below-normal,” Colorado State University researchers on Wednesday reduced their projections for the number of named systems and the duration of activity, stating they “now anticipate a well below-normal season.”

A day earlier, the private meteorological firm AccuWeather slightly reduced the range of named storms it predicted to develop in the Atlantic basin.

In both cases the forecast is tied to moderate El Niño conditions likely to intensify into a “strong” El Niño by the mid-September peak of the six-month hurricane season that began June 1.

The term El Niño refers to a warming of the ocean surface waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and resulting low-level surface winds that can disrupt normal weather patterns across the U.S. and globally.

“Sea surface temperatures across the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic are near their long-term averages,” Colorado State University posted on Wednesday. “We anticipate the powerful El Niño being the dominant factor for the upcoming hurricane season, driving high levels of tropical Atlantic vertical wind shear.”

Vertical wind shear usually helps weaken or disrupt storms.

“El Niño conditions have always been the driver for why we’re expecting numbers near or below the historical average this year,” said Alex DaSilva, AccuWeather lead hurricane expert. “The stronger the El Niño gets, the fewer named storms we’re likely to get. Back in 2015, we had a strong El Niño and got 11 named storms. I think that is the sweet spot again this year.”

An average storm season has 14 to 15 named storms, with seven reaching hurricane strength.

AccuWeather, which initially forecast between 11 and 16 named storms, now predicts the formation of eight to 14 named storms for the season. Unchanged is the forecast of four to seven hurricanes, with two to four becoming major systems. AccuWeather also forecasts three to five having a direct impact on the U.S.

“The northern and eastern Gulf Coast, the Carolinas, and the northeastern Caribbean remain higher-than-average risk areas, where storms can develop rapidly,” a release from AccuWeather stated.

With a caveat added, the Colorado State University release noted there is a “below-average probability” for a major hurricane to make landfall on the U.S. coastline before adding that “coastal residents are reminded that it only takes one hurricane making landfall to make it an active season.”

The school’s forecast now sits at 9 named storms, down from 13 when the initial projections were released in April and 11 when updated in June.

Also, the July forecast has four storms reaching hurricane strength, with winds at or above 74 mph, instead of six as in the pre-season outlook and five when the numbers were revised in June.

The ocean and gulf waters are expected to be active with named storms for a total of 35 days, down from 45 days in the June forecast. A typical year has 69.4 days of storm activity.

Meanwhile, the number of storms reaching major strength — Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale with sustained winds of 111-mph or greater — was put at one, down from two in the prior forecasts.

As of Wednesday, the only named storm to arise was Tropical Storm Arthur, which brought flash flooding and tornadoes as it made landfall June 18 near Galveston, Texas.

In 2025, the Atlantic produced 13 named storms and five hurricanes, with four reaching Category 3 — winds of 111 mph to 130 mph, and storm surge of 9 feet to 12 feet above normal tide.

None of the 2025 storms, though, made a direct landfall in Florida or the U.S. 

From 2022 to 2024, Florida took direct hits from six hurricanes, including four that were Category 3 or stronger.

A federal appeals court Tuesday kept in place a district court’s preliminary injunction on Florida’s law banning “woke” instruction at public universities.

A 2-1 ruling from the three-judge panel on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found Florida’s assertion it could control the speech of its employees, including college professors, to be “a breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the state’s own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry.”

Judge Britt Grant, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote the opinion and was joined by Judge Charles Wilson, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.

“Florida seeks to strip public university professors—and by extension their students—of the ability to fully engage with ideas that are, for better or for worse, very popular in some academic circles,” Grant wrote. “The State asks us to consider its rules a means of targeting discrimination. But hearing an idea you disagree with is not discrimination; it is an opportunity to come up with a better idea, or maybe even change your mind.”

The case was brought by a set of university professors and backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

“We are thrilled the court has stopped the erasure of topics that have real implications for our students, allowing them to learn, discuss, and develop tools for combatting the complex issue of racism in our country without being gagged by those who would dictate that only state-approved thought may be promoted,” LeRoy Pernell, a Florida A&M University College of Law professor, and one of the instructors who brought the lawsuit, said in a released statement.

The ruling prevents Florida from enforcing part of the “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act” passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022.

DeSantis pushed for the law as a bulwark against “indoctrination” in university classrooms. It bars professors from endorsing precepts of critical race theory, including eight specific tenets.

For example, the law bans instruction that causes students to “feel guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the person played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin or sex.”

Supporters of the law said they sought to halt teachings that supported racial discrimination, while opponents in the Legislature, mostly Democrats contended it was really an attempt to quash candid teaching about historic racial horrors in the U.S., including slavery and the Jim Crow era.

Other parts of the law sought to ban workplace training at companies regarding racial, gender and sexual orientation issues, but those provisions have been struck down by federal courts.

Judge Barbara Lagoa, also a Trump appointee, wrote a dissent arguing the state had the right to restrict the speech of professors in the classroom.

“To be clear, the First Amendment protects all viewpoints in the public square, whether they are conventional or controversial. But it does not compel all viewpoints to be worthy of state-sponsored endorsement,” Lagoa wrote. “We need not agree or disagree with Florida that the viewpoints at issue here constitute racial discrimination; we need only acknowledge that the State is allowed to decide what is endorsed by its professors in its own classrooms.”

Before Lagoa was appointed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals she sat on the Florida Supreme Court as an appointee of DeSantis.

In her decision Grant stated she agreed the courts shouldn’t choose the content of university classrooms, but argued they must intervene when the government unduly restricts speech.

“We share the dissent’s view that the federal courts do not police curriculum. But we do police the First Amendment,” Grant wrote. “And if the history of that Amendment tells us anything, it is that the government cannot forbid what it perceives as heresy.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis wasted little time declaring two Islamic groups, various foreign cartels, and an anti-fascism movement as terrorist organizations on the first day a new law allows the state to impose such designations.

With the anti-terrorism law (HB 1471) from the 2026 regular session effective Wednesday, DeSantis stated his intention to put the label on the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Brotherhood and antifa.

The designations announced Wednesday still need to be backed by the members of the Florida Cabinet: Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. All three Republicans are up for election in November.  

CAIR intends to take the designation to court.

The law also outlines rules for expelling students at state universities who “promote” support for these groups.

“We’ve got to draw a very strong line in the sand here,” DeSantis said at the Attorney General’s Tampa Office of Statewide Prosecution. “We’ve seen this creep throughout the country over many, many years.”

The new law was crafted to back up an executive order DeSantis issued in December placing the “terrorist organization” label on the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood.

In March, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction against the executive order, ruling it violated CAIR’s rights by targeting and threatening those providing the organization with material support.

CAIR also plans to challenge the law, which in a statement claims it “dramatically expands Florida’s authority to both label and punish groups.”

“Gov. DeSantis is seeking to unilaterally silence a leading American civil rights nonprofit and punish those who support it,” Scott McCoy, deputy legal director of Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of CAIR, said in a statement.

A release from the governor’s office stated the law is intended to identify and “combat terrorist organizations operating in Florida.”

The release doesn’t define antifa, which DeSantis said, “practically lives in Portland.”

DeSantis’ recommendation also includes more than 90 foreign organizations already designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, including the Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa, Mexico-based drug trafficking Cartel de Sinaloa, the Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico-based Cartel del Golfo, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran’s military.

DeSantis, who expects an “emergency call” to be quickly set up with the Cabinet members, said the designations were based upon conduct.

“Even though I don’t like antifa’s ideas, I mean, they’re militant leftists,” DeSantis said. “It’s their actions and what they’re involved with that’s very destructive. And the same with Tren de Aragua, same with (the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), obviously they’re a revolutionary military Islamic organization, but they’re also the leading fermenter of terrorism worldwide.”

The law allows the state’s Chief of Domestic Security — currently Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass — to designate a domestic or foreign terrorist organization.

It also bars a court from enforcing any provision of a religious or foreign law, with an emphasis against the Islamic code known as Sharia law, and requires a student in the Florida College System who “promotes” terrorist organizations to be expelled.

The law defines “promotion” as when a student’s actions can be “reasonably interpreted” as an actual threat of violence; disrupt the learning environment; infringe upon the rights of others; or offer “material support for or the recruitment of members for such an organization.”

Other parts of the bill bar schools affiliated with designated terrorist organizations from receiving state K-12 scholarship program money. Also, public universities and colleges are prohibited from spending state or federal funds to support programs or campus activities that promote a designated terrorist organization. 

The bill was approved in the Republican-controlled Legislature by votes of 80-25 in the House and 25-11 in the Senate.

While the legislation was debated, Democrats raised concerns the bill and a related public records exemption (HB 1473) blocking documents showing how a “terrorist” designation is reached, would deprive any group hit with the label of due process.

Opponents of the bill also expressed concerns over whether people, especially students on college campuses, could inadvertently be accused of being a member of a designated domestic terrorist organization and suffer consequences without a conviction.

State general revenue collections for May exceeded expectations by $231.8 million, driven by sales tax and earnings on state investments.

The Legislature’s Office of Economic & Demographic Research reported Monday that the state collected $4.66 billion in net general revenue in May, about 5 percent above the amount anticipated in a revised January forecast.

General revenue is closely watched because it plays a major role in funding education, health and prison programs.

Sales tax collections, which make up the largest part of state revenue, totaled $3.22 billion for May. The total was $143.3 million more than forecast, according to the office release.

Earnings on state investments totaled $158.7 million, $38.9 million more than the projection,

Meanwhile, corporate income taxes, which accounted for $329.9 million in revenue during the month, was $6.7 million under the forecast.

Deeper into the numbers, revenue from tourism was up 2 percent in May and documentary stamp taxes on real estate transactions topped the forecast by 9.8 percent. Meanwhile, taxes generated from auto sales were 3.5 percent lower than expected and beverage taxes came in 23.1 percent lower than predicted for the month.

As the U.S. annual inflation rate climbed from 3.8 percent in April to 4.2 percent in May, largely driven by surging energy and gasoline costs, state economists continue to use the monthly report to warn that Floridians are saving at a “subpar” rate.

The typical rate of earnings saved should be around 7 percent. According to the report, the rate in May was 3 percent, the lowest since June 2022.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his eighth and final budget (HB 5001E) of his tenure Monday, vetoing $810 million from a $117.6 billion spending plan.

The move came two days before the fiscal year was set to begin, after lawmakers’ battle over the amount of spending led to a stalemate that required a special session in May to settle. The main budget was $114.5 billion before the vetoes, with lawmakers adding more funding to cover items addressed in the previous budget. 

After an infusion of federal stimulus funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, DeSantis has touted a reduction in the budget for four straight years, as well as reduction in the state debt and a decrease of 1,300 state worker from when he first took office in 2019.

“Who else is doing that?” DeSantis said at a bill signing event at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa. “The footprint of government is not growing in Florida. If anything it’s shrinking.”

DeSantis’ office released the veto list several hours after he announced it. He vetoed $810 million in spending, as well as a $750 million transfer from the state’s main fund to a budget stabilization fund. 

“The things that we vetoed, a lot of those are just either inappropriate or maybe nice to have. Nice to have is fine, but I want to fund things that we have to have,” DeSantis said.

He also said he vetoed a companion budget bill (HB 5403E), which would have required $50 million in funding each year for the next 40 years for capital projects for the corrections system. The bill also required construction of a new 600-bed corrections hospital and bonds to be issued to pay for it.

There were also provisions in the main budget bill (HB 5001E) that tied $91 million in pay increases for corrections officers to the approval of the prisons bill, so those salary hikes are also nixed.

Another $24.9 million in prison repairs, and $56.4 million for new prison cells at Lancaster Correctional Institution in Gilchrist County were tied to the approval of the HB 5403E and fell to DeSantis’ veto.

The money for new prisons and maintenance at corrections facilities would have come from a debt reduction fund, which DeSantis has highlighted throughout his term as governor.

DeSantis said that while he supported the hikes in pay for prison guards in recent budgets to help retain and recruit employees to an agency plagued with turnover, the extensive borrowing required by the bill led him to quash it.

“It was a casualty of saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to rob Peter to pay Paul,’” DeSantis said. “That accounts for a decent chunk of the vetoes.”

In other parts of the budget, there’s more than $30 billion for K-12 schools, or about $9,338 per student, about $150 more than the prior year. That includes about $4.5 billion for the state’s school vouchers program, which pays parents a stipend to send their children to private schools or for homeschooling.

The funding also sets aside $1.5 billion to boost teacher pay, with more than $201 million for teachers with at least 10 years of experience, although the increase will be capped at $3,000 per year.

There is also $665 million for Everglades restoration projects, another priority for DeSantis throughout his two terms in office.

“This budget continues to move Everglades restoration forward so that Floridians – and those that visit our great state – can realize the ultimate benefits ahead of schedule,” said Everglades Trust CEO Anna Upton in a released statement. “Restoring the natural flow of water south through the Everglades and decreasing harmful discharges from Lake Okeechobee will mean that Florida’s economy, which relies on clean water, will continue to thrive.”

Undocumented students wouldn’t be admitted to the state’s public universities under a proposal reviewed by the State University System Board of Governors on Thursday.

The board discussed a new rule that would make students who are not lawfully present in the United States ineligible for enrollment at any of the 12 state universities beginning with the 2027-2028 academic year.

The rule change would not affect students already enrolled. Currently, the university system does not flag students who are not lawfully present in the U.S. 

Some board members questioned whether the rule would affect international students who are enrolled in online degrees. For example, if a student is located in Toronto and is paying out-of-state tuition for an online MBA at the University of Florida.

“I don’t think it would be the intent of this board to preclude somebody who lives overseas to access online programs,” said Board Chair Alan Levine. “I think what we’re talking about is graduate and undergraduate resident programs.”

The rule was amended to clarify that it did not apply to students located outside the U.S., but it hasn’t been formally approved by the board, which while hold a vote at a later date on the proposal.

Next week, the state Board of Education, which governs Florida’s 24 state colleges, will also discuss new policies that bar undocumented students from attending those institutions and taking the General Educational Development test.

The rules were originally slated for a May 13 meeting but were postponed and set on the agenda for Tuesday.

One rule requires applicants to state colleges to provide attestation they are a U.S. citizen or lawfully present in the U.S. prior to being admitted and to provide documentation of their status before enrollment.

Another rule would ban undocumented immigrants from adult general education programs in high schools and state colleges. Adult general education programs prepare those taking the GED exam for the equivalency of a high school diploma.

“Adult education providers must establish and implement written policies to verify that students are United States citizens or lawfully present in the United States,” the proposed rule says.

Under the landmark 1982 Supreme Court case Plyler v. Doe, states cannot prevent undocumented children from attending a K-12 public school without “showing that it furthers some substantial state interest.”

The proposed rules, however, could affect students under 18, as the GED exam can be taken by 16 and 17-year-olds, and high school students in Florida have opportunities for dual enrollment classes within the state college system.

Unemployment claims in Florida dropped for a second consecutive week, but remained close to the weekly average since the start of the year.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 5,981 first-time jobless claims were filed in Florida last week, down from 6,943 the week ending June 13 and 7,671 the week ending June 6.

With the numbers for the week ending June 13 revised up from 6,732, the state’s weekly average since the start of the year is now 6,007.

The federal estimate follows the state updating its jobs numbers last Friday to indicate that approximately 531,000 Floridians currently qualify as unemployed out of a workforce of 11.45 million in May. The state’s unemployment rate held at 4.8 percent from April to May after eight consecutive monthly jobs reports in which the rate increased.

Nationally, 215,000 claims were filed last week, down from a revised count of 227,000 the week ending June 13.

One year after it opened, Alligator Alcatraz, the detention center used by Florida and the federal government to house undocumented immigrants, is shutting down.

“Alligator Alcatraz fulfilled the role that it was designed to serve,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, the location of the tented immigration detention center.

“Today it now has zero detainees. It has helped remove many, many dangerous people from the street and get them out, not only the state of Florida, but the United States of America,” he said.

Behind a lectern with a sign that read “Florida Leads on Immigration Enforcement,” DeSantis was joined by White House Border Czar Tom Homan and Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement Director Anthony Coker.

DeSantis said Alligator Alcatraz helped the federal government deport 21,000 people, and the state’s other immigration detention center, Deportation Depot in Baker County, will remain open.

“We’re going to continue the partnership, we understand the mission continues,” he said. 

The facility opened July 1, 2025, within days of the start of construction, and was derided by Democrats and critics. It has been the subject of numerous lawsuits on environmental, due process and civil rights grounds that sought to close it down.

Court records show Alligator Alcatraz has cost the state approximately $1 million per day to run and was estimated to cost more than $1 billion for two years of operations.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management has overseen the two immigration detention centers, and has used money within the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund to pay for their operations.

Since 2022, lawmakers have deposited $4.77 billion into the fund to respond to natural disasters, like Hurricanes Helene and Idalia. As of this week, the state has approximately $25 million left in the fund.

DeSantis defended the price tag for illegal immigration enforcement and said the state will be reimbursed by the federal government. The delay in the reimbursements is due to “bureaucracy,” he said, and Florida got a payment just last week from FEMA for immigration-related costs.

“We’ve got to do whatever it takes to keep people safe, and there’s no question that people are safer as a result of that,” DeSantis said. “We prevented preventable crimes.”

Homan praised DeSantis’ cooperation with the federal government.

“Governor DeSantis was one of the first governors to step up,” Homan said.

All the detainees who were housed at Alligator Alcatraz have been moved to other detention facilities, DeSantis said.

As for the future of the airstrip, DeSantis said it will continue to be used for training flights. But Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a memo to county commissioners she would pursue “permanent protection” for the land used for Alligator Alcatraz.

“Once this facility is decommissioned, we have an opportunity to permanently protect these lands for Everglades restoration and ensure they remain protected for generations to come. That is the legacy we should leave,” Levine Cava said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has made a large property tax cut ballot measure central to his message in his last year in office, and on Wednesday he signed two bills in line with that priority.

The bills are designed to make it harder for city and county governments to hike property taxes and require them to post more information online about their budgets.

“This is something that will be protecting taxpayers,” DeSantis said during a bill signing ceremony in Bradenton.

Under the first bill (SB 4F), local governments and special taxing districts won’t be able to use the rise in per capita personal income when calculating the maximum millage they can approve for property taxes.

Cities and counties can approve a rate that is 10 percent more than the rolled back rate – or the millage rate needed to generate the same revenue as the previous year as property values rise – if two-thirds of their governor board approves. But now they won’t be able to factor in the rise in personal income growth, making it harder to raise rates.

The bill was passed during the special session last month when lawmakers also approved the property tax ballot measure (SB 2F) which would increase the homestead property tax exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028.

The ballot measure requires 60 percent support from voters in November to pass.

The bill DeSantis signed Wednesday passed along largely partisan lines, with Democrats opposed and Republicans in favor. But three Senate Democrats – Sens. Mack Bernard of West Palm Beach, Darryl Rouson of St. Petersburg and Barbara Sharief of Miramar – voted for it.

The bill took effect immediately upon DeSantis’ signature.

The other measure (HB 1329) was a main priority for Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who has helped push DeSantis’ property tax proposal by reviewing the budgets of local governments throughout the state, arguing they’ve taxed and spent excessively in recent years.

“Government is never going to right size itself, it’s going to have to come from the taxpayers,” Ingoglia said at the bill signing ceremony.

The bill imposes new requirements on city and county governments, such as publishing a quarterly report on employee compensation and conducting a budget cutting exercise each year.

“This bill clears the fog and strips away the ambiguity that has cloaked local governments’ excessive and wasteful spending,” Ingoglia said.

The bill takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.

Efforts to shrink Citizens Property Insurance have brought the policy count for the state-run insurer to what officials herald as a record low.

But they also caution that an upturn is bound to occur, though it shouldn’t be as dramatic as ones in the past due to new laws approved in 2022 and 2023.

Citizens Property Insurance President and CEO Tim Cerio told board members Tuesday in a conference call that depopulation strategies over the past couple of years put the policy count under Citizens at 278,662 as of last Friday.

“It seems that we are really at an all-time low for probable maximum loss for Citizens policy insurance, which is great news, and again attributable to the reforms,” Cerio said.

The policy count, and any potential exposure risk, is down from 1.41 million in October 2023 as financial problems in the private market caused homeowners to fall into Citizens, which became the state’s largest property insurer.

With the current numbers, Cerio cautioned that a more measured upturn is expected due to the changes in law that help speed the latest depopulation move.

“With the reforms, what we think we are going to see is, instead of a drastic increase if the market really turns south at some point, those increases and decreases would be more gradual. They wouldn’t be as drastic,” Cerio said. “That’s good news for consumers.”

The recent legislative changes targeted lawsuit costs incurred by insurers. The state has also benefitted from a year without any hurricanes, which officials say has allowed some softening in homeowners insurance prices and growth in new carriers into the state.

State leaders have long sought to hold down the number of Citizens policies, at least in part because of financial risks if Florida gets hit by a major hurricane or multiple hurricanes. Citizens was created to provide a haven for homeowners who couldn’t find affordable coverage with a private carrier, but its policy counts have fluctuated significantly, depending on private market conditions.

Florida Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky claimed at the June 9 Cabinet meeting the insurance market is the healthiest it’s been in at least a decade.

“There are well-capitalized companies ready for the oncoming hurricane season, should the worst happen,” Yaworsky said. “So, we find ourselves in a really good place.”

The policy count high in 2023 wasn’t the peak for Citizens, which reached 1.48 million policies near the end of 2012.

At that time a series of depopulation efforts were implemented, such as the “clearinghouse” where homeowners would be sent to a private firm when their coverage was within 15 percent of the offer by Citizens.

By 2019 Citizens had the count just under 420,000 policies.

Last week Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill (SB 1028) that will create a new clearinghouse for commercial policies and allow surplus lines insurers providing strong financial strength ratings to be considered for the policy takeouts.

Surplus lines insurers are companies not licensed in Florida but allowed to operate as an “eligible” insurer.

News Service Assignment Manager Tom Urban contributed to this report.

The $114.5 billion budget for the next fiscal year (HB 5001E) was delivered to Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday.

DeSantis has 15 days to act on the fiscal package, which took 77 days to complete after the end of the regular session, and other bills he received Tuesday.

But the fiscal year begins July 1, so a partial government shutdown would ensue if he doesn’t sign the measure before that date.

Also arriving on his desk Tuesday were related budget bills, a tax cut measure (HB 7031E), and the last piece of legislation from the regular session, which resurrects the emergency trust fund used to pay for declared emergencies (SB 7040).

 An upward trend in the state’s unemployment rate paused in May, with hiring by small businesses considered “flat.”

The Department of Commerce on Friday posted a 4.8 percent jobless rate for the state.

The rate is unchanged from April and marks the first time the figure didn’t go up since the rate held at 3.7 percent from June 2025 to July 2025.

Nationally, the unemployment rate held at 4.3 percent from April to May.

Commenting after the U.S. Department of Labor’s June 5 jobs report showing the U.S. economy added 172,000 jobs in May, the National Federation of Independent Businesses stated their figures showed little change in the jobs market, with the small business employment index being “essentially flat” in May compared to April.

“Florida’s small businesses continue to feel the pressures from increased costs across business operations, with rising labor costs as a top concern,” NFIB Florida executive director Bill Herrle said in a released statement. “Small business hiring stalled in May as owners continue to report challenges finding qualified workers.”

The latest state figures show an estimated 531,000 Floridians are unemployed out of a workforce of 11.45 million. Both numbers are slightly down from April, but the number of unemployed has grown by 118,000 over the past year.

Also in the last 12 months, the state has seen seven of 10 major employment fields post negative growth, with the private sector adding just 20,200 jobs.

The number of private sector jobs declined from April to May by 2,200.

The report estimated jobs within the area of education and health services grew by 31,400 over the past year. Those gains were driven by a projected 25,800 new jobs in health care and social assistance.

Professional and business services added 17,600 over the past year, followed by 5,300 in leisure and hospitality related jobs.

Those numbers were partially offset by a drop of 15,500 positions over the year involving financial activities, 9,200 among government workers, and 6,900 in the area of trade, transportation, and utilities. Also, construction jobs decreased by 2,900 over the year and manufacturing dropped 500 positions.

South Florida continues to have the lowest unemployment rate, with the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area at 3.6 percent, followed by the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford region at 4.4 percent.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg, Panama City and Naples regions were each at 4.5 percent.

The Melbourne, Jacksonville and Sarasota regions were each at 4.7 percent.

Pensacola was at 4.8 percent, followed Tallahassee at 4.9 percent, Daytona Beach at 5.2 percent and Gainesville at 5.3 percent.

Lakeland was at 5.5 percent.

The Wildwood area that includes The Villages remains at the other end with a 7.6 percent jobless rate, ahead of Homosassa Springs at 6.4 percent and Sebring at 6.2 percent.