Florida’s unemployment rate fell to 2.5% during December 2022 and remained lower than the national average unemployment rate. On the other hand, a decrease in unemployment rate is making it challenging for the employers to fill vacant positions.

Unemployment rate is significantly lower than national average

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity released the jobs data on Friday which stated that December unemployment rate is down by 1 point compared to November’s unemployment rate. Moreover, the data showed that around 271,000 Floridians are qualified as unemployed. The overall Florida’s workforce currently stands at 10.76 million. Importantly, the unemployment rate was roaming around 3.5% in December 2021 and current number shows massive improvement. Furthermore, there is an increase of 3.5% in Florida’s workforce over the past one year. This number is significantly higher than the national workforce increase of 1.6%. “Florida’s statewide unemployment rate has now remained under the national rate for 25 consecutive months.” Jimmy Heckman, the Department of Economic Opportunity’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research told the reporters.

Leisure & hospitality sector performed well

Florida’s unemployment rate of 2.5% has just dropped to reach the historic low of 2006. Significantly, the state’s private sector employers are currently advertising 442,000 new jobs. Moreover, the number of filled positions increased by 9,000 from November to December. Similarly, the number of filled positions rose by 93,000 from December 2021. Leisure & hospitality sector had the most adverse effect when the pandemic struck in 2020 and the sector lost millions of job nationwide. However, the sector saw largest gain from December 2021 till December 2022. There was an increase of 88,600 jobs in leisure and hospitality across Florida. Similarly, education and health services witnessed an addition of 83,800 jobs. Whereas, trade, transportation, and utilities added 82,700 positions.

Furthermore, the report stated that Florida lost 1.28 million jobs during February 2020 till April 2020 amid COVID-19 eruption. However, the state has managed to add back 1.78 million jobs till date.

Browse for job opportunities in Florida

Keep up with the latest employment news across US at News

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *