Tallahassee, FL - Florida’s unemployment rate increased slightly as Gov. Ron DeSantis assumed office, ticking up 0.1 percentage point from December to January, according to numbers released Monday by the state Department of Economic Opportunity.
The preliminary figures estimated that 352,000 Floridians were out of work in January from a workforce of 10.3 million, which represents a 3.4 percent unemployment rate.
The estimate projected that 7,000 more people were out of work in January when compared to December. The national unemployment rate was 4 percent in January.
February numbers for Florida will be released March 22. The January figures in Florida were bolstered by annual growth in the categories of professional and business services, education and health services, transportation and utilities, construction and hospitality jobs.
The 3.4 percent statewide rate was seasonally adjusted, while a non-seasonally adjusted rate was 3.9 percent. The state also released county unemployment rates for January that
Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys, had the lowest rate, at 2.8 percent, followed by St. Johns and Okaloosa counties, both at 3.4 percent. Orange and Seminole counties were at 3.5 percent.
At the other end of the spectrum, Gulf County, still reeling from Hurricane Michael, had the highest unemployment rate, 7.4 percent, followed by its Gulf Coast neighbor Bay County at 6 percent.
Local Impact | Volusia & Flagler
In Volusia and Flagler, 2019 began with an unemployment rate close to what it saw at the start of 2018 with 4.2% (4.5% in January of 2018).
According to the figures from the Florid Department of Economic Opportunity (not seasonally adjusted), 2018 saw a drop in unemployment, going from 4.5% to 3.5% between January and December.
But, when 2019 rolled around, the unemployment rate spiked to 4.2%, which is higher than the current state unemployment rate of 3.9%.
In the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, 200,100 in total were employed in January of 2018. That would go on to increase by 3.2% (206,500) in January of 2019.
In work fields, construction jobs saw the highest spike in employment between 2018 and 2019 with a 13% increase, going from 13,100 to 14,800 residents employed.
Information jobs had the biggest drop from 2,500 to 2,400, a 4% decrease.
Currently, the Education and Health Services field has the most employed with 40,400 in 2019. That field saw a 4.7% increase between the start of 2018 and the start of 2019.
