Jobs outlook better for Florida, Orlando
The unemployment rate in Orange and Seminole counties fell in March to one of the lowest rates the Metro Orlando area has seen since the Great Recession, according to new data released Friday morning.
The county data isn’t adjusted for seasonal fluctuation yet, so it might wind up a bit higher than the 3.8 percent being reported by the state.
In both counties, the jobless rate was down from 4.2 percent in February and down from 4.3 percent a year ago.
Florida’s jobless rate dropped a couple of notches to 4.8 percent, down from 5 percent in February, and down one-tenth of a percentage point from a year ago. The state number is seasonally adjusted.
Construction-related companies are growing fast in the Orlando region, such as planning and project management firm ZHA, which is based downtown. The company has 14 employees and is hiring for five or six openings.
“We want some younger people, but not fresh out of school. Ideally we get people with 15 years of experience. Unfortunately many people left our industry during the recession so it’s a challenge to find the right people,” ZHA president Frederick “Rick” Mellin said.
He said the company’s growth is fueled by the general economy.
“Most of our business has been government, schools, hospitals — and the recession hit those agencies pretty bad. So they put off a lot of work, and they’re catching up now,” he said. Statewide, the unemployment rate in Florida was again higher than the national rate, even though Florida keeps adding jobs at a faster rate than the nation does, which happens because Florida’s workforce is also growing fast.
There were 483,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 10,108,000. The U.S. unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in March. The state gained 246,100 jobs over the year, an increase of 3.0 percent. Nationally, the number of jobs rose by just 1.5 percent over the year.
Osceola County’s jobless rate was 4.4 percent in March, down from 4.8 percent in February, and down from 4.9 percent a year ago.
Lake County’s jobless rate was 4.2 percent in March, down from 4.7 percent in February and down from 4.8 percent a year ago.
Metro Orlando has been leading the state in job creation, in terms of sheer numbers of jobs in the private sector. The metro area added 42,700 new private-sector jobs over the past 12 months. The metro unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in March, down 0.5 percentage point from one year ago. The industries with the largest job gains over the year in the Orlando area were leisure and hospitality with 12,000 new jobs; trade, transportation and utilities with 8,200 new jobs; and professional and business services with 7,100 new jobs. In March, the Orlando area remained second for state metro areas in job demand with 34,402 openings. Orlando also had the second-highest demand for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 9,679 openings.
The statewide jobless rate had been stuck at 5 percent in January and February, also higher than the U.S. rate of 4.7 percent. Economists generally believe that 5 percent and below is “normal” unemployment, because of job-hopping, moving and other natural changes. But the February rate also shows the labor pool is growing in Florida.