Gov. Rick Scott’s job-creation goal gets unexpected boost, but...

Gov. Rick Scott's second year in office turned out not to be as underwhelming for job creation as once thought.

Federal labor economists estimated Florida generated 54,900 net jobs in 2012. Scott, of course, promised to deliver 700,000 new jobs in seven years to the Sunshine State (on top of normal growth), so the modest gains were a setback to his campaign goal.

But each March, economists revise their original estimates using Census Bureau data instead of business surveys. This year's revision, which relies on unemployment insurance reports from employers and changes in population estimates, added more than 84,000 jobs to Scott's jobs tally.

Cool down, conspiracy theorists. Scott did not cook the books to add thousands more jobs to his tally. These numbers come from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, so states don't have individual control.

Plus, most states had their jobs estimates revised up. Only four states and Washington, D.C., generated fewer jobs than originally estimated.

The way we typically get monthly employment numbers -- by surveying a sample of employers -- is helpful but often imprecise. It's like trying to figure out the jobs picture through a foggy window, experts say.

"The picture becomes clearer once we get this benchmarking process,” said Sean Snaith, a University of Central Florida economist and director of UCF's Institute of Economic Competitiveness. "We can't really get a real-time read on the economy.”

Snaith added: "The real measuring stick will probably be nine years from when he took office.”

In heralding the news, Scott highlighted the state's unemployment rate of 7.8. percent -- its lowest in five years and below the national average -- and the creation of more than 280,000 private sector jobs since he took over.

Scott likes to tout private-sector job creation under his watch, which ignores the number of government employees who lost their jobs at the same time.

Through 25 months in office, Scott's new net jobs total is 254,600 jobs.

So why, with progress on job creation, are we rating this Stalled?

To reporters on the campaign trail and during a debate, Scott clarified his jobs plan would build on top of forecasts from state economists, who predicted the state would add 1 million jobs by 2017 regardless of policy changes.

To meet Scott's promise, the state needs to add 20,238 jobs a month, every month for seven years. As you can tell from our chart, that has happened a few times, including in January 2012, which after benchmarking went from a loss of 35,400 jobs to an increase of 23,300 jobs.

Under Scott's watch, Florida is creating an average of 10,184 jobs a month. It's not bad -- it's certainly better than before the revisions.

Still, it's half the monthly average Florida needs to crank out in order for Scott to fulfill his promise of creating 1.7 million new jobs by 2018.

The Tampa Bay Times noted one other important point in its March 18, 2013 story about the rosier jobs numbers: The percentage of the working-age population in the labor force fell during the recession and has not yet recovered. Even though Florida"s 16+ civilian population increased by 218,000 in 2012, the labor force grew by just 96,000, the Times noted.

This promise remains Stalled.