The unemployment rate for Polk County was lower at 2.7% in December compared to a year ago, according to the latest figures from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

The unemployment rate was also 0.7% lower than the region's year ago rate of 3.4 percent, the FDEO said Friday in its monthly unemployment data release. However, Polk County’s unemployment rate for December was 0.5% higher than the state rate of 2.2%.

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The labor force grew to 339,911 workers, up by 5,517 people or 1.6% since December of last year. There were 9,300 unemployed residents in the region.

In December, nonagricultural employment in the Lakeland-Winter Haven metropolitan area was 271,100, an increase of 5,900 jobs or 2.2% increase year over year.

Polk County surpassed the rest of Florida in certain job categories. Education and health services jobs increased by 10.1%, other services went up by 10%, and government workers increased by 2.8%, which were faster in the county than statewide over the year.

The region’s fastest growing professions are nurse practitioner, physicians' assistants and sewing machine operators, FDEO said in regional data.

The job gains for Polk County in December over the year were:

• Education and Health Services (+3,700 jobs)

• Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+1,200 jobs)

• Government (+800 jobs)

• Other Services (+700 jobs)

• Financial Activities (+200 jobs)

• Leisure and Hospitality (+200 jobs)

• Manufacturing (+100 jobs).

The industries losing jobs over the year were Professional and Business Services, with 800 jobs eliminated, and Mining, Logging, and Construction down by 200 jobs. The Information industry jobs stayed the same over the year.

Some U.S industries have already seen job declines as economists have predicted a recession in 2023.

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“The early job losses in the U.S. are mostly in the tech, real estate, and financial sectors,” said Jerry D. Parrish with the John Scott Dailey Florida Institute of Government at Florida State University.

“Rising interest rates and uncertainty have caused some substantial cancellations of new home contracts in the U.S., although the numbers are not substantial in Florida,” he said. “Continued interest rate increases will affect housing affordability and slow new home construction in Florida.”

Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.5 percent in December 2022, down 0.1% compared to the November rate, and 1% lower than a year ago, FDEO said. There were also 271,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 10,761,000.

Florida’s seasonally adjusted total nonagricultural employment was 9,578,500 in December, an increase of 21,400 jobs (+0.2 percent) over the month. The state gained 440,000 jobs over the year, an increase of 4.8 percent.

Florida’s total private sector employment surpassed the February 2020 (pre-pandemic) level in October 2021 and labor force surpassed the February 2020 level in June 2021. All nine major private sector industries have surpassed pre-pandemic employment levels.

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Florida lost 1,282,500 jobs from February to April 2020 and has since gained back all of those lost jobs and more, with the addition of 1,785,500.

All 10 major industries tracked in Florida experienced positive over-the-year job growth in December. The top job categories gaining in Florida were hospitality at 88,600 new jobs or a 7.4% increase, and in second place was the education and health services category, which added 83,800 jobs or a 6.2% gain in workers.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate was 3.5% in December and the number of jobs rose 3% over the year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Jan. 6. The total nonfarm payroll employment increased nationally by 223,000 in December.

Notable job gains in the U.S. occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care, construction and social assistance, the BLS said.

Paul Nutcher can be reached at pnutcher@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk County's December unemployment rate comes in lower than last year