South Florida retains strongest hiring pace statewide as state jobless rate declines slightly
With service-related jobs topping employment gains, Florida’s unemployment rate dipped slightly as 2023 began.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity this week released a report showing the January jobless rate at 2.6%, down from a revised rate of 2.7% in December and down from 3.5% in January 2022. An estimated 286,000 Floridians qualified as out of work in January from a workforce of 10.855 million.
The workforce grew by 15,000 from December and by 259,000 from January 2022. Most of the recent job gains in Florida and across the nation continue to center on lowerpaying retail and hospitality jobs.
Among the major metro areas, the January unemployment rate in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach statistical area was 2.3%, the lowest in the state. The highest rates were found in The Villages, Sebring and Homosassa Springs regions, each at 3.9%.
For the first time in six weeks, Florida had a slight uptick in initial unemployment claims last week while the overall number nationally fell. The U.S.
Department of Labor on Thursday issued a report that estimated 5,141 new claims were filed in Florida during the week that ended March 11, up from a revised count of 4,865 during the week that ended March 4. While Florida’s total inched up for the first time since the start of February, it was still the secondlowest monthly number since the start of the year.
Jimmy Heckman, the department’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research, said Florida’s market for finding jobs remains “very strong,” though the overall number of positions advertised has decreased.
“People that are unemployed typically have a very, very quick turnaround for finding jobs,” Heckman said.
The state has about 620,000 recorded job openings, a 7.9% reduction from a year ago. But Heckman said current postings are “elevated” over 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the economy.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported last week the national unemployment rate ticked up from 3.4% in January to an estimated 3.6% in February. The increase was due to nearly half a million people rejoining the labor force, while 311,000 positions added to payrolls in February topped expectations.