Economists taking a fresh look at the state’s unemployment rate report findings that support workers’ organizations which say the state’s job picture may be improving because thousands of jobless Floridians are leaving the workforce.

In a detailed complaint filed with the U.S. Labor Department, Florida Legal Services and the National Employment Law Project charge that sweeping changes to how Florida workers must file claims have denied unemployment checks to thousands of eligible Floridians.

Critics say frustration with the system also may be aiding Gov. Rick Scott’s goal of reducing unemployment. Some workers may abandon their job search or just leave the state, falling out of Florida’s labor market, they said.

The Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research this week released its latest economic overview for the state, which says that as much as 75 percent of the state’s 1.2 percent drop in unemployment since last December is attributed to Floridians leaving the workforce.

If the same number of Floridians were in the labor force, April’s 8.7 percent unemployment rate — a three-year low– 9.6 percent of workers in the state would have been unemployed, EDR concluded.  Those disappearing from the workforce could have abandoned their job search, returned to school, left the state or retired.

But critics say that Scott is overstating the health of Florida’s economy when he claims the unemployment drop is proof the state is on what he called the “path to recovery.”

Even at 8.7 percent unemployment, Florida’s rate remains above the nationwide 8.1 percent level. Only seven states have higher unemployment rates than Florida, which was tied in April with Mississippi and Illinois, EDR found.

The state’s plan to steer almost 3 million low-income, elderly and disabled Floridians into managed care health coverage drew wide-ranging criticism Friday in the first of a series of public hearings on the proposed overhaul.

About 250 people jammed a hearing room at the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration, warning the new law could force independent pharmacies to close, undermine care for some of the frailest Floridians, and lead some families to avoid treatment rather than pay required $10-a-month co-payments.

The legislation (CS/HB 7107, 7109) was signed into law last week by Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who earned millions of dollars as a health care executive before his election.

The new standard builds on the HMO-styled plans introduced for Medicaid patients in Broward, Baker, Clay, Nassau and Duval counties, beginning in 2006, but which have drawn poor to mixed reviews from policy analysts.

“We think it’s extraordinarily premature to expand this program,” Anne Swerlick, a deputy director for Florida Legal Services, told AHCA officials Friday.

Advocates for poor and low-wage workers filed a lawsuit against the state for failing to raise the minimum wage to reflect inflation as required by the Florida constitution.

Lawyers for the New York-based National Employment Law Project and Florida Legal Services filed the lawsuit on behalf of roughly 188,000 minimum wage workers in Florida.

The agency should have raised the current $7.31 hourly minimum rage by six cents, the lawsuit argues.

In 2004, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment automatically raising the minimum wage each year to reflect the increase in the cost of living.