The unemployment rate in Polk County was 3.1% in March, but that figure was above the overall unemployment rate statewide, according to job numbers released Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

Still, unemployment in Polk County was 0.4 percentage points lower in March than in March 2022, when the rate was 3.5% countywide.

Polk County’s March unemployment rate was 0.5 percentage points above the state rate, which was 2.6% last month, the FDEO said.

The numbers of workers increased in March by 3.1%, or 10,547 people, for a total labor force of 346,138. There were 10,709 unemployed residents in the region.

Also in March, nonagricultural employment in the Lakeland-Winter Haven metro area increased by 3.4%, or 8,900 jobs, since March 2022, for a total of 272,100.

Leading the jump in workers was the leisure and hospitality sector, which saw a 12.2% increase, or 3,200 jobs. It was highest percentage growth of any metro area in the state for that category.

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Other sectors that grew faster in Polk than in the rest of the state were education and health services, which rose 7.7% (2,800), information (4.2%, 100 jobs), financial activities (3.7%, 600 jobs) and mining, logging, and construction (3.3%, 500 jobs).

Others industries gaining jobs in Polk over the year were:

• Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (1,300 jobs).

• Manufacturing (200 jobs).

• Other Services (200 jobs).

• Government (100 jobs).

The only sector losing jobs was the professional and business services category, which lost 100 jobs in the county over the year.

In a recent article by UCF Today about his latest quarterly U.S. economic forecast, University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith called the current high employment rates unprecedented. This is while the first half of 2022 experienced “a record plunge in labor productivity and rising inflation” which is something he said “may have given way to a new economic phenomenon” a “job-full” recession.

Snaith compared the phenomenon to the “jobless recoveries” of the early 1990s and 2000s in his forecast released Wednesday.

And another recession may be coming, Snaith said in the article. He added that "unlike past recessions, the labor market has kept growing in the face of other economic losses — something that’s unprecedented."

The statewide March job numbers were good news for Florida’s economy; as the FDEO announced in a press release that the state labor force climbed by 250,000 over the year and the unemployment rate remained lower than the nation’s for 29 consecutive months.

In March, Florida’s unemployment rate was 2.6% for the third month in a row, 0.9% lower than the U.S. rate of 3.5%. Florida’s labor force rose 2.3% or 250,000 new workers year over year.

Florida’s gross domestic product grew for the fourth quarter of 2022 by 3.7%, which was 1.1% above the national rate of 2.6% during the same quarter.

Between March 2022 and March 2023, Florida’s total private sector employment grew by 389,000 jobs (4.7%), 1.9 percentage points faster than the national private sector job growth rate of 2.8% during the same period.

Jobs have been added by Florida employers for the past 34 months, since May 2020, with the exception of October 2022, the FDEO pointed out, adding that private-sector job growth in March exceeded the nation’s for the 24th consecutive month, since April 2021.

In March, education and health services sector gained the most jobs statewide with a rise of 6,800 jobs, or 0.5% from the previous month. Others included trade, transportation and utilities, which added 6,700 jobs for a 0.3% increase, and leisure and hospitality rose to 5,200 jobs, a 0.4% increase.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported Friday that U.S. unemployment rates had fallen from February to March in in 18 states, while they were stable in 32 states and higher in the District of Columbia.

Eleven states and the District had jobless rate decreases from a year earlier, 10 states had increases, and 29 states had little change.

The national unemployment rate was 3.5%, and changed little over the month or since March 2022, the BLS said. Nonfarm payroll employment increased in two states and was essentially unchanged in 48 states and the District of Columbia in March. Over the year, nonfarm payroll employment increased in 42 states and was essentially unchanged in eight states and the District of Columbia.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk's unemployment rate dips to 3.1% while workers increase