JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — This week Governor Rick Scott announced that the Jacksonville area added 18,400 new private-sector jobs in the last year. Jacksonville’s unemployment rate was 3.6 percent in November, down 1.1 percentage points from one year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created 13,900 new jobs in November and the unemployment rate remained at 3.6 percent, the lowest rate in more than a decade. Since December 2010, Florida businesses have created 1,465,800 new private-sector jobs.
Governor Scott said, “The Jacksonville area’s low unemployment rate and addition of more than 18,000 new jobs is great news for First Coast families. Statewide, nearly 1.5 million jobs have been created since December 2010 and we will keep working to secure Florida’s future as the best place for job creators and families to succeed.”
The industries with the highest growth over the year in Jacksonville were trade, transportation and utilities with 8,400 new jobs and professional and business services with 3,700 new jobs. The Jacksonville area once again rounded out the top five metro areas in job demand, with 20,620 openings, and ranked fourth-highest for number of high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 5,794 job openings.
In the last year, 199,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 2.0 percent. This rate is nearly three times the national labor force growth rate of only 0.7 percent. In November, 16,990 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Northeast Florida and the state’s other 23 local workforce boards.