The unemployment rate in Polk County was 3.6% in July , which is 2.2 percentage points lower than the region's year ago rate of 5.8%, state figures show.

Still, the county's unemployment rate last month was a 0.8 percentage point above the state rate of 2.8%, according to figures released Friday from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

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The labor force was 338,715, up 11,064, a 3.4% increase over the year. There were 12,095 unemployed residents in the Lakeland-Winter Haven region

In job categories, the Lakeland-Winter Haven metropolitan area still has the fastest annual job growth rate compared to all the metro areas in the state in the Information industry with growth of another 10.5%.

Professional and business services came in third place statewide for the region with an annual job growth rate of 7.5%.

The state DEO also reported gains in July for the following additional job categories in Polk County:

• Nonagricultural employment in the Lakeland-Winter Haven region was 261,300, an increase of 11,300 jobs or a 4.5% rise compared to July 2021.

• Education and health services rose 6.1% and government added 1.2%, both growing faster in the metro area than statewide over the year.

• Trade, transportation, and utilities added 4,000 jobs

• Professional and business services with 2,600 jobs

• Education and health services at 2,100 jobs

• Leisure and hospitality with 1,800 jobs

• Other Services gained 500 jobs

• Financial activities rose 400 jobs

• Government reversed a trend toward job losses and added 300 jobs

• Information added 200 jobs

• Manufacturing gained 100 jobs

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The job category with losses in Polk County were the mining, logging, and construction industries, which lost 700 jobs since last July.

"Polk county is the fastest growing county in Florida and that together with a post-COVID surge in travel, tourism and outdoor leisure activities is fueling an employment boom in the county," said Shivendu Shivendu, associate professor for the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida.

"Tourism-related activities, including hotels, restaurants and entertainment, account for a major share of employment (more than 25,000 jobs) and the visitors to Polk County spend more than $1.5 billion in Polk county economy," he said. "Post-COVID surge in tourist arrivals to large cities within the county, like Winter Haven, Lakeland, Four Corners and Haines City, are creating a large number of job opportunities."

In addition, rapid population growth on population creates new jobs in construction, healthcare, education and retail sectors, Shivendu said. This keeps Polk County at the top of job the growth numbers in Florida as well as at the national level.

Statewide figures showed, Florida's unemployment rate was 2.7% in July 2022, for a total of 9,433,400 workers employed as nonagricultural jobs in July 2022.

Florida has gained 437,800 jobs since July 2021 for a 4.9% gain year over year.

Nationwide, total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 528,000 in July, and the unemployment rate went down to 3.5%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Job gains were similar across the country compared to Polk County's increases.

Job growth was across the board, with leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care leading the job categories with the most jobs added.

"Both total nonfarm employment and the unemployment rate have returned to their February 2020 pre-pandemic levels," the BLS said.

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A Florida Chamber of Commerce scorecard reported that over the last year, Florida generated one out of 13 jobs nationwide and gave economic reasons for the job creation. One reason was the beneficial impact of 122.4 million visitors to the Sunshine state as well as its business and tax climate, which attracted 260,000 new residents in 2021, according to TheFloridaScorecard.org.

Many of the new arrivals come from states with less attractive business and tax environments leading to about $2.7 million per hour to Florida in net economic migration, the scorecard said citing IRS annual tax return data.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk July unemployment at 3.6%