Florida’s unemployment rate has dropped to it’s lowest level since April of 2007, dropping to 3.7 percent. In addition to the drop in the unemployment rate, Scott announced that Florida businesses have now created 1.595 million jobs since December 2010.
Gov. Rick Scott announced the latest job figures Friday morning at a news conference at Solar Stik, a company located in St. Augustine that manufactures portable power generators that operate off of solar energy.
“As Florida’s economy continues to grow and unemployment has reached its lowest point in more than a decade, even more Floridians are finding great jobs in the Sunshine State,” said Scott.
“ I am proud that our pro-growth strategies are paying off with nearly 1.6 million jobs created since I took office,” Scott added. “Our soaring economy has allowed us to make investments in areas that matter to families, like education, transportation and protecting our environment. That’s why Florida continues to outpace the nation in job growth and is the best state to find a job and raise a family.”
Orlando continues to lead the state in job creation for the 40th consecutive month, adding 53,900 new jobs over the past year. The unemployment rate in Orlando was 3.6 percent. That’s down 0.4 percentage point from one year ago.
Tampa had the second highest job creation numbers adding 31,400 new jobs over the past year. The Miami area came in third with 26,300 new jobs.
“Florida’s economy is thriving under Governor Scott’s leadership with phenomenal private sector job growth as our labor force continues to expand,” said Cissy Proctor, executive director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. “Florida has added more than 57,000 new jobs just in the past two months, showing businesses are investing in our economy. Consumer sentiment also remains high, indicating that residents are confident and finding jobs with the nearly 1.6 million new jobs added since December 2010.”
In the past year, 211,400 new jobs have been created by the private sector. The state’s annual job growth rate has exceeded the nation for 75 of the past 76 months. The only month Florida didn’t exceed the national rate was when Hurricane Irma struck the state last year. The current job growth rate for Florida is 2.8 percent, that’s compared to the nation’s rate of 1.9 percent.