JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —Governor Rick Scott announced that the Jacksonville area added 22,400 new private-sector jobs in the past year, creating the third-highest number of jobs among all Florida metro areas. Jacksonville’s unemployment rate was a low 3.1 percent in May, down 0.7 percentage point from a year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created 19,000 new jobs in May bringing the total number of new private-sector jobs created in Florida to more than 1.5 million since December 2010.
To see the statewide job creation information, click HERE.
The industry with the highest growth over the year in Jacksonville was professional and business services with 5,600 new jobs. The Jacksonville area once again rounded out the top five metro areas in job demand, with 18,937 openings, and had the fifth-highest number of openings for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 4,870 online openings.
As of May, Florida’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent, a drop of 7.0 percentage points since December 2010; this drop is faster than the national decline of 5.5 percentage points. In the past year, 124,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.2 percent, which is greater than the national labor force growth rate of 1.1 percent.
To view the May 2018 employment data, visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.