Governor Rick Scott announced today that the Jacksonville area added 24,300 new private-sector jobs over the year in August. The area’s unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in August, a decline of 0.8 percentage point in the last year. Florida businesses created 22,600 private-sector jobs across the state during August 2016, bringing the total number of jobs created since December 2010 to 1,191,900 jobs.
Governor Scott said, “Our work to create opportunities for every Florida family is working, especially in Jacksonville where businesses added more than 24,000 new jobs in the past year. We have cut taxes 55 times since 2010 which has saved $5.5 billion for families and job creators, and we will keep working to cut even more taxes for Floridians.”
The industries with the most job growth in the Jacksonville area over the year were education and health services with 5,100 new jobs; leisure and hospitality with 4,800 new jobs; and construction with 4,300 new jobs. The Jacksonville area remains among the top five metro areas in job demand, with 19,843 openings, including 5,592 job openings in high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations.
Florida’s statewide unemployment rate remained low at 4.7 percent, the lowest rate since November 2007. For the 53
rd consecutive month, Florida’s annual job growth rate of 3.4 percent is also exceeding the nation’s rate of 1.9 percent. More than 33,058 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Northeast Florida and the state’s other 24 regional workforce boards.
To view the August 2016 employment data visit
www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.