Florida’s unemployment rate hits record low

Florida’s unemployment rate has hit a record low, with Governor Ron DeSantis announcing a drop to an unprecedented 3 percent in December 2019.

Florida’s labor force continued to increase with 220,000 Floridians entering the workforce over the year. Florida job postings showed 284,263 openings in December 2019

“My administration continues to pursue bold priorities for Florida, and our efforts to diversify the economy are yielding results,” said DeSantis. “I remain laser focused on ensuring Florida is offering a world-class pool of talent to businesses and investing in our students and educators. We continue to prioritize the protection of our natural resources and water quality while also continuously searching for ways to support new and innovative industries which are helping to produce historically low unemployment in our state.”

Over the year, Florida businesses created 198,200 private-sector jobs, with the state’s annual private-sector job growth rate of 2.5 percent continuing to outpace the national job growth rate of 1.5 percent. Jobs in the area of education and health services saw the highest increase, with 54,100 new jobs created.

“Our historic low unemployment is not a coincidence,” said Executive Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Ken Lawson. “Governor DeSantis understands that diversifying our economy is good for all Floridians and he has advocated for policies that encourage businesses to invest in our state. I am looking forward to the bright future ahead for Floridians as we continue to make smart, strategic investments that benefit Floridians from Pensacola to Key West and everywhere in between.”

The new year is off to a hot start with more private-sector jobs coming to Florida in 2020. Just this month, DeSantis announced Made In Space was relocating its corporate headquarters from California to Florida and Spirit Airlines was expanding into a new headquarters in Dania Beach.