ORLANDO, Fla. — Governor Rick Scott has announced that June 2018 marked 39 consecutive months of the Orlando area having the highest job creation in the state, adding 43,700 new private-sector jobs in the past year. The unemployment rate in Orlando was 3.5 percent, down 0.5 percentage point from one year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created 16,900 new jobs in June bringing the total number of new private-sector jobs created in Florida to 1,554,800 since December 2010.
The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Orlando area were leisure and hospitality with 11,600 new jobs, and professional and business services with 9,700 new jobs.
In June, the Orlando area was second among state metro areas in job demand with 36,130 job openings. Orlando also remained the second-highest metro area in demand for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 10,732 openings.
As of June, Florida’s unemployment rate remained at a low of 3.8 percent, a drop of 7 percentage points since December 2010; this drop is faster than the national decline of 5.3 percentage points. In the past year, 130,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.3 percent, which is greater than the national labor force growth rate of 1.2 percent.
To view the June 2018 employment data, visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.