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FLORIDA’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE UNCHANGED BY NSF STAFF
Florida’s
unemployment
rate
remained
unchanged from February to March, according to
numbers released Friday by the state Department
of Economic Opportunity. The 3.5 percent jobless
mark represents 360,000 Floridians out of work
from a workforce of 10.3 million, an increase of
3,000 listed as unemployed from February to
March. The state unemployment rate remains
below the national mark of 3.8 percent. Florida
officials highlighted that the state has seen an
increase of 209,700 jobs over the past year, an
increase of 2.4 percent. The job category with the
biggest growth during that time was professional
and business services, which grew by 50,500
positions. Other categories with the top year-to-
year growth were education and health services;
leisure and hospitality; trade, transportation, and
utilities; and construction. Over the past year,
the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
metropolitan statistical area had the largest
increase in jobs at 55,500, or 2.1 percent; followed
by the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area at
47,400 jobs, a 3.7 percent increase; and the
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area at 29,600
jobs, a 2.2 percent increase. The Panama City
area, still recovering from Hurricane Michael in
October, reported a decrease of 1,000 jobs over
the past year, a 1.2 percent drop.
APRIL 2019 • DITCHMEN
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