The unemployment rate in Florida stayed at 3.9 percent in March, right below the national average of 4.1 percent, as 13,800 new jobs--12,500 of them in the private sector--were added in the Sunshine State.
Gov. Rick Scott announced the news at VOXX International which moved a facility to Orlando in 2015.
“When I took office, I made it my number one mission to make Florida the best place in the world for job creation,” Scott said. I’m proud to announce today that Florida has achieved another incredible milestone – 1.5 million private-sector jobs have been created since December 2010. This incredible turnaround should serve as a blueprint for the rest of the country. If you cut taxes, eliminate burdensome regulation and invest in the priorities that matter most to families, like education, job creators respond by growing and creating jobs. Congratulations to every business who has chosen Florida as the best place to create jobs.”
In the past year, more than 173,000 jobs have been created in Florida with professional and business services leading the way with 38,100 new jobs, The leisure and hospitality sector has seen 32,300 news jobs while there have been 31,600 jobs created in construction, 21,200 in financial activities, 15,600 in financial activities, 15,200 in trade, transportation, and utilities and 10,000 in manufacturing. The information sector is the only field losing jobs with a drop of 1,700 jobs over the past year.
Cissy Proctor, the executive Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, pointed to job growth since Scott took over in Tallahassee.
“Since December 2010, businesses have created more than 1.5 million jobs for Floridians and their families,” she said. “This tremendous growth demonstrates Florida businesses’ confidence in our economy and our talented workforce.”
Okaloosa and St. Johns Counties had the lowest unemployment rate with both counties having 3 percent unemployment followed by Monroe County at 3.1 percent and Franklin, Orange, Seminole, and Walton counties which all stood at 3.2 percent.
Sumter County had the highest unemployment rate at 5.4 percent followed by Citrus County at 5.2 percent and Hendry County at 5.1 percent.
