Professional Services, Construction Sectors Fueling Florida’s Private Sector Job Growth

ORLANDO, FL—The State of Florida has gained 170,400 private sector jobs in the last 12 months and a bullish 8,300 new private positions in the month of April.

Gov. Rick Scott touted the strong employment numbers on Friday at a press event here at the El Meson restaurant. The governor noted that the state’s annual job growth rate of 2.3% continues to outpace the national economy’s 1.8% rate of job growth. The Sunshine State’s annual job growth rate has outpaced the national average for 72 of the past 73 months.

“April was yet another month where Florida outpaced the nation’s growth rate and we continue to add to our total of over 1.5 million jobs created since December 2010. Floridians across the state are finding great jobs as our economy continues to grow,” Gov. Scott said.

The top five job producing markets in Florida in April were: Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

As of April, Florida’s unemployment rate remains low at 3.9%, a drop of 6.9 percentage points since December 2010. That rate of decline is sharper than the national decline of 5.4 percentage points during the same period. In the past year, 125,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.2%, which is greater than the national labor force growth rate of 0.8%

“Businesses are growing and expanding in the Sunshine State and have created more than 1.5 million jobs since December 2010, showing their confidence in our economy and talented workforce,” said Cissy Proctor, executive director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. “While our labor force rate continues to grow, we are happy to see more opportunities for hardworking Floridians.”

Florida’s bullish job numbers were led by the professional and services sector, which added 39,400 new jobs in the last 12 months, followed by the construction industry, which netted 34,900 new jobs and then the leisure and hospitality trades that posted 34,100 new jobs The top five private sector job gainers also included the education and health services fields with 21,700 new jobs and then the financial industry with 14,700 new jobs. In the month of April, Florida job postings showed 244,272 openings.

Achieving the number one job generator market in April, the Orlando area has added 38,800 new private-sector jobs in the last year. The unemployment rate in Orlando was 3.1% in April, down 0.5 percentage point from one year ago. Orlando led the state in job growth over the year in the leisure and hospitality (10,900 new jobs); professional and business services (7,700 new jobs) and the construction sector (6,000 new jobs).

In April, the Orlando area was once again second among state metro areas in job demand with 38,352 job openings. Orlando also remained the second-highest metro area in demand for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 11,224 openings, state officials said.

The Tampa area added 33,300 new private-sector jobs in the last year. Tampa’s unemployment rate was 3.2% in April 2018, down 0.6 percentage point from one year ago. The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Tampa area were leisure and hospitality with 9,300 new jobs; education and health services with 6,300 new jobs and financial activities with 6,200 new jobs.

The Jacksonville area added 16,700 new private-sector jobs in the last year. Jacksonville’s unemployment rate was 3.2% in April, down 0.6 percentage point from one year ago. The industry with the highest growth over the past year in Jacksonville was professional and business services with 4,400 new jobs.

As of April 2018, the Miami area added 13,700 new private-sector jobs in the last year, knocking the unemployment rate down to 4.2% down 0.5 percentage point from one year ago. The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Miami area were manufacturing with 6,200 new jobs and construction with 5,700 new jobs.

Rounding out the top five for private sector job growth was Fort Lauderdale, which has added 12,400 new private-sector jobs in the last year. Fort Lauderdale’s unemployment rate was 3.2% in April, down 0.5 percentage point from one year ago. The high job growth industries in the past year in Fort Lauderdale were construction with 3,400 new jobs and professional and business services with 3,100 new jobs.