Governor Rick Scott announced today that the Jacksonville area added 24,100 new private-sector jobs over the year in November. The area’s unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in November, a decline of 0.1 percentage point in the last year. Florida businesses created 31,600 private-sector jobs across the state during November 2016, bringing the total number of jobs created since December 2010 to 1,266,900 jobs.
Governor Scott said, “More than 24,000 new jobs were created in the Jacksonville area over the past year, which means thousands more families in Northeast Florida are able to find great employment. We will keep working to cut taxes and reduce burdensome regulations so Florida businesses can continue to grow.”
The industries with the most job growth in the Jacksonville area over the year were leisure and hospitality with 6,700 new jobs and professional and business services with 3,900 new jobs. In November, the Jacksonville area remained among the top five metro areas in job demand, with 19,111 openings, including 5,429 job openings in high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations.
Florida’s statewide unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in November, as a result of the rapidly growing labor force which increased by 64,000 over-the-month in November alone. For the 56
th consecutive month, Florida’s annual job growth rate of 3.5 percent is exceeding the nation’s rate of 1.7 percent. More than 38,961 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Northeast Florida and the state’s other 23 regional workforce boards.
To view the November 2016 employment data visit
www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.