Jacksonville jobless rates among lowest in Florida, hold steady in May
Jacksonville's jobless rate held steady at 2.3% in May, a drop of 1.7 percentage points from 2021's unemployment numbers in the area.
The unemployment rate in the Jacksonville area includes Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties. The statewide jobless rate was 3% in May, according to data released from Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity in June.
Both the Jacksonville area and state unemployment rates remained the same from April's data released last month.
The Jacksonville metro area workforce saw an additional 39,600 people added from April 2021 and led in-job gains in professional and business services.
St. Johns County had the second-lowest unemployment rate in the state in April at 1.9%, followed by Nassau County’s 2%. Clay County had a rate of 2.2%, and Duval County had 2.5%, up slightly from 2.4% in April.
The Jacksonville area gained 13,700 jobs in the professional and business services industry in May, according to a Department of Economic Opportunity news release June 17. The metro area also led in construction industry job gains over the year with 3,900 jobs.
Putnam County, which borders Clay and St. Johns counties but isn’t part of the Jacksonville metro area, tied with Highlands County for the state’s highest unemployment rate at 3.6%, the same rate as last month's report.
Florida’s unemployment rate has been better than the national average since December 2020. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.6% in May.
May data indicates continued job growth with about 499,000 jobs posted online across the state.
June's employment numbers are scheduled to be released July 22.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: St. Johns County boasts lowest unemployment rate in Florida
