Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that the Jacksonville area added 15,600 new private-sector jobs in the last year. Jacksonville’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.3 percent in October, down 1.4 percentage points from one year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created 127,400 new jobs in October and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent, the lowest rate since February 2007. Since December 2010, Florida businesses have created 1,448,300 new private-sector jobs.
Governor Scott said, “I am proud to announce that more than 15,000 new jobs were created in Jacksonville this past year, which has provided more opportunities for Floridians to provide for their families and live their dreams. The area’s continued job growth and unemployment rate decline means more families can find a great job in Northeast Florida.”
The industries with the highest growth over the year in Jacksonville were trade, transportation and utilities with 6,300 new jobs and professional and business services with 3,500 new jobs. The Jacksonville area once again rounded out the top five metro areas in job demand, with 20,154 openings, and ranked fifth-highest for number of high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 5,523 job openings.
In the last year, 216,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 2.2 percent. This rate is more than four times the national labor force growth rate of only 0.5 percent. In October, 23,082 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Northeast Florida and the state’s other 23 local workforce boards.
To view the October 2017 employment data visit
www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.