March 29, 2024

Florida has lowest unemployment rate among 10 largest states for 4 consecutive months

(The Center Square) – Florida’s unemployment rate in April stood at a near record low of 2.6% for the fourth consecutive month.

Florida also had the lowest unemployment rate of the top 10 largest states in the U.S., again, last month.

The rate was 0.8 percentage points lower than the national rate of 3.4%. Florida’s statewide unemployment rate has remained lower than the national rate for 30 consecutive months, since November 2020.

Florida added 21,200 jobs in April, bringing the state’s seasonally adjusted total nonagricultural employment to 9,704,700. Florida has gained 363,400 jobs over the year, an increase of 3.9%. Florida’s job growth was faster than the national job growth rate of 2.6% over the year.

From February 2020 to April 2023, Florida saw a labor force increase of 5.8%, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said, totaling 10,960,000 jobs.

Between April 2022 and April 2023, Florida’s total private sector employment grew by 336,200 jobs, or 4.1% – faster than the national private sector job growth rate of 2.7% over the same time period.

By April 2023, with the exception of October 2022, Florida employers added jobs for 35 months since May 2020. Florida’s over-the-year private sector job growth rate also exceeded the national growth rate for 25 consecutive months since April 2021.

“Through strong economic policy and strategic investments, Florida is outperforming the nation and providing more opportunity for its citizens, resulting in more than 200,000 new business formations this year alone and an unemployment rate near an all-time low,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “In Florida, we are combating negative national economic headwinds by promoting policies that support Florida businesses and families and attract record numbers of tourists every day.”

Nine of ten major industries saw positive over-the-year job growth last April, the DOE reported. Education and Health Services added 90,600 jobs, Leisure and Hospitality added 89,200 jobs, Trade, Transportation, and Utilities added 54,300 jobs, Professional and Business Services added 50,200 jobs, total Government added 27,200 jobs, Financial activities 19,700 jobs, Manufacturing 13,300 jobs, Other services 11,100 jobs, and Construction 8,600 jobs.

Meredith Ivey, acting secretary of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, said the governor’s “Freedom First policies are helping Florida businesses continue to create jobs and Floridians feel confident in the meaningful job opportunities available to them, ensuring the economic prosperity of the great state of Florida and its residents.”

Last month, Monroe County had the lowest unemployment rate of 1.4%, followed by Miami-Dade County’s 1.8%, and Gulf, St. Johns and Okaloosa counties 2% each. Citrus and Hendry counties had the highest unemployment rate of 3.4% each, followed by Highlands County’s 3.3%.

Florida also saw the largest volume of visitors in the first quarter in state history – 37.9 million people between January and March of this year.

“The Q1 estimates show that 2023 is on track to continue Florida’s outstanding performance in welcoming visitors,” VISIT FLORIDA President and CEO Dana Young said. “Each quarter shows that Florida is the most sought-after destination for visitors and we are excited to continue our efforts in welcoming more throughout the year.”

A record high of approximately 34.6 million domestic visitors traveled to Florida in the first quarter, continuing the trend of domestic visitation growth for an eighth consecutive quarter. Another 1.8 million visited from overseas over the same time period. Foreign visitation increased by 36% from the first quarter this year compared to the same time period last year, making it the closest overseas visitation has come to full recovery since the pre-COVID era.

Total enplanements at 19 Florida airports also increased by 11.8% in the first quarter this year, reaching 27.6 million visitors, according to VISIT FLORIDA data.

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