Governor Rick Scott announced the Jacksonville area added 25,600 new private-sector jobs over the year in January. The area’s unemployment rate declined by 1.0 percent over the year to 4.9 percent in January. Florida has added 1,060,800 private sector jobs since 2010. Governor Scott will celebrate this great news today on his five-city “Million, Billion Jobs Victory Tour.”
Governor Scott said, “The Jacksonville area added more than 25,000 new jobs and unemployment dropped to 4.9 percent, which means more Floridians are able to provide for their families. Over the past two years, we have also cut $1 billion in taxes, and it was great to celebrate this accomplishment at TQL in Jacksonville today as part of the ‘Million, Billion Jobs Victory Tour.’ We will keep working to cut taxes so businesses can continue to add valuable jobs for families across Florida.”
The industries with the largest job gains over the year in the Jacksonville area were leisure and hospitality with 8,200 new jobs; and trade, transportation, and utilities with 5,600 new jobs. In January, the Jacksonville area had 19,257 job openings and had 5,201 openings for high-wage, high-skill science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs.
Florida created 36,000 private-sector jobs in January, and a total of 1,060,800 private-sector jobs since December 2010. Florida’s statewide unemployment rate for January remains steady at 5.0 percent. In January, more than 28,843 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Northeast Florida and the state’s other 24 regional workforce boards.
To view the January 2016 employment data visit
www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.