Florida’s unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent in May, after inching up earlier in the year, while Flagler County’s unemployment remained at 4.2 percent, where it was last month.
The Florida Department of Commerce on Friday released a report that showed an estimated 414,000 Floridians were out of work in May from a labor force of 11.2 million people.
In Flagler County, 2,339 residents are unemployed, almost exactly the same number as last month but about 300 more than at this time last year. The labor force was flat, adding barely two dozen people to a total of 55,625. The labor force is an indication of the number of working-age people and families moving to the county. It is almost unchanged from a year ago. Some 53,300 county residents are holding jobs. A job qualifies as even logging an hour of employment in the weeks of the survey.
The report came after the Legislature late Monday approved a budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year that included putting additional money into a state rainy-day fund as a brace against potential future economic downturns or disasters.
But Jimmy Heckman, the Department of Commerce’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research, said Friday that the state economy doesn’t show “signs of concern.”
“We’re continuing to see, at least in Florida, an environment where there’s a lot of demand for workers,” Heckman told reporters in a conference call. “Businesses are having a lot of reasons to hire or expand, and that the labor force that’s looking for work is able to find work relatively easily.”
Heckman said the state’s unemployment rate remains “very low by historical standards.”
The Florida unemployment rate in May 2024 was 3.3 percent. It was 3.4 percent in December before creeping up this year to 3.7 percent. The national unemployment rate last month was 4.2 percent.
Most business sectors in Florida showed upticks in employment in May, though small declines were seen in government and construction jobs.
For example, employment in wholesale trade grew by 3,600 workers; the educational services sector was up by 2,800; and the accommodation and food services sector was up by 2,600. Employment was down by 1,500 positions in state government; 1,000 in the federal government; and 400 in construction.
The overall size of the labor force dipped by 4,000 people in May but was 42,000 larger than in May 2024. The number of people qualified as unemployment increased by 4,000 in May and was up 44,000 from a year earlier.
Across the state, the lowest unemployment rate in May remained in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area at 3.1 percent, up from 3 percent in April. Within that region, the rate in the Miami-Miami-Beach-Kendall area was at 2.7 percent.
The May rate was 3.3 percent in the Crestview-Fort-Walton Beach-Destin area and 3.4 percent in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area.
The Panama City-Panama City Beach and the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater regions were at 3.5 percent. The Jacksonville and Naples-Marco Island areas were at 3.6 percent.
The rate was 3.7 percent in North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville areas. The Tallahassee, Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent and Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan statistical areas were at 3.8 percent.
The Port St. Lucie area was at 3.9 percent, while the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach area was at 4 percent and the Gainesville area was at 4.1 percent.
The highest rate in the state was 6 percent in the metropolitan statistical area that includes The Villages and Wildwood. The region was at 6.3 percent in April.
The Homosassa Springs area was at 5.2 percent in May, the Sebring area was at 5 percent, the Punta Gorda area was at 4.4 percent, the Ocala and the Lakeland-Winter Haven areas were at 4.3 percent and the Sebastian-Vero Beach area was at 4.2 percent.
The statewide rate is seasonally adjusted, while the metro rates are not adjusted.
–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida, and FlaglerLive
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