Report: Florida Layoffs Slowing
FLORIDA — If you’ve got a job in Florida, chances are now better that you will keep it, according to a new study that shows layoffs are on the decrease in the state.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a job placement firm, reports layoffs are down 37 percent in the sunshine state this April compared to April 2016.
That translates to 1,184 jobs lost during this April compared with 1,870 a year earlier.
Most Florida layoffs came in financial, aerospace, construction, pharmaceutical, and services.
Florida retailers are cutting jobs more slowly than the rest of the nation; a sign of a strong economy overall, say economists.
AAA: Less Pain at the Pump This Summer
Quickly rising gas prices in Florida this April were apparently an anomaly that will not continue, according to the American Automobile Association.
After peaking at $2.47 on average for a gallon of regular last month, prices have been on a steady decline of a half cent to a full cent per day in the sunshine state.
AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins says supply is starting to eclipse demand. “The effects of OPEC’s production cuts have (since) been offset by increased oil production from the U.S., Canada, Nigeria, and Libya. Meanwhile, demand levels were weaker than expected.”
If the situation continues, motorists may see near $2 a gallon by the summer.
Florida fuel prices averaged $2.39 a gallon for regular on Thursday, according to AAA.
Deputy fired for waving weapons, quoting Denzel Washington
LEESBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff’s deputy is out of a job after officials say he waved his firearm and stun gun while quoting lines from Denzel Washington’s character in “Training Day,” a movie about a corrupt law enforcement officer.
The Orlando Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2pNlJzV ) reports Lake County Deputy Dean Zipes was fired April 21.
Authorities say Zipes rubbed his pistol and Taser together in the direction of a convenience store in front of a police trainee. An internal affairs review says the action replicates a scene from the 2001 movie.
Zipes told investigators he was trying to be funny.
The report says Zipes twice pulled his firearm in an office setting, voiced racial slurs, made a motion to draw his gun at a pizza delivery boy and became upset after not receiving free Starbucks coffee.