Florida led the country in job growth nationwide for the month of January, according to a press release from Gov. Rick Scott’s office released Friday.
Florida’s private-sector job rate growth of 3.7 percent was higher than the national private-sector job rate growth of 2.2 percent for the month of January.
Gov. Scott said the news was “exciting” and indicated the Sunshine State was continuing onward on the track of economic progress.
“We have cut taxes by $1 billion over the past two years and added more than one million jobs in only five years,” he explained. “We’ve turned Florida’s economy around and we led the nation in job growth in January. This means even more families can find great jobs in our state. I’m committed to creating an environment where businesses succeed so Florida can be the best place in the world to get a job.”
This isn’t the first month Florida has placed in the top 10 states for private sector job growth -- Florida has made the list of the top 10 states for job growth nationwide for the past 13 months.
According to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the number of jobs in the state was up by 263,900. Compared to January a year ago, the number of jobs is an increase of 3.3 percent.
“Florida is the best place to start or grow a business, and our impressive job growth numbers prove that to the rest of the nation,” Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Cissy Proctor said.
Proctor pointed to the Scott Administration’s focus on jobs as the primary reason for the state’s impressive job growth.
“The Scott Administration’s commitment to private-sector job growth has resulted in more than one million new jobs and a stronger Florida economy,” said Proctor.
According to the press release from Scott, Florida has added more jobs over the last nine months than Texas, which is generally hailed as the leader in job growth nationwide. Texas added a total of over 157,000 jobs over the last year.
Job growth in Florida has been growing steadily. In January, the state’s manufacturing industry saw the fastest annual job growth rate in the nation at 3.8 percent.
The numbers are good news for the Scott Administration, which has made job creation its main focus since he took office in 2010. According to Friday’s press release, Florida businesses have created 1,060,800 private-sector jobs.
Florida also saw the lowest unemployment rate in eight years at 5.0 percent in January.
