TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida's jobless rate would be much higher if people weren't dropping out of the work force.

A new state economic report released Tuesday says Florida's unemployment rate would actually be 9.5 percent if the number of workers in the state had held steady since last December.

The current rate is 8.6 percent and has dropped 1.3 percent in the last six months.

But the report says the drop is not due to the number of jobs growing in the state.

Gov. Rick Scott has insisted that the state's dropping unemployment rate is due to changes that he has been pushing. Scott came into office promising to create 700,000 jobs over seven years.

The report says it could take a long time for the job market to recover.