2016 marks another year of job growth, but Scott’s promise still has ways to go

Gov. Rick Scott bragged about his passion project in his penultimate State of the State address: jobs.

"Florida's businesses have created over 1.26 million private-sector jobs since I was elected, including more than 237,000 new jobs last year alone," Scott said.

Jobs have always been important to Scott, who pledged to create 700,000 jobs (on top of what the state would have created anyway) in seven years. It's been more than a year since we last looked at this promise from his 2010 campaign.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1,262,600 nonfarm jobs were created in Florida between the end of December 2010 and December 2016, the last month for which there is data. (Scott's total excludes roughly 500 government jobs.)

While the numbers of private-sector jobs have increased since 2010, one expert noted that the effects of the recession are still being felt.

Chris McCarty, the director of the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, said that the state has yet to regain the construction jobs that were lost in the recession. McCarty said these jobs are important to note because they are high-paying. Prior to the recession (2006), there were about 668,700 construction jobs and in November 2016 there were only 461,800.

In any case, there's more work to do before Scott hits the jobs total that he promised. This promise stays In the Works.