Inside Florida’s jobs report for January... Part 1 all about Florida
Bottom Line: 2018 was a great year for the US economy and jobs generally across the country. The good news included hitting record low unemployment rates for Asians, blacks, Hispanics, foreign born Americans, Native Americans and women. Not bad. Add in the best wage growth in 13 years and we were cooking with gas. But that was nationally. In Florida we did even better. Here are some of the highlights based on last Friday’s report from the state...
- 3.3% unemployment (15% lower than the national average of 3.9%)
- 231,200 new jobs added in 2018
- 22,800 new jobs in December
- Florida’s rate of job growth was 50% better than the national average
And the jobs we’re adding continue to be diverse and point to continued good news economically in 2019. The top industries for new jobs to end 2018 were...
Education & Healthcare
Leisure and Hospitality
Professional and business services
Construction
Trade, transportation & utilities
Florida’s manufacturing story continues to be a significant factor as well. We added 12,700 new manufacturing jobs last year, 3.5% more year over year. In other words, Florida’s economy has had it working from pretty much all angles. The only sector that didn’t post gains in 2018 in Florida, government jobs. Smaller state government, booming private sector – there's a lot to like in our state.