Inside Florida’s jobs report for January... Part 2 all about South Florida
Bottom Line: In the first story today, I walked you through all of the great economic news in Florida based on the final job's report of 2018. This one’s all about what’s up in South Florida. And the news is generally pretty great... Nationally the unemployment rate is 3.9%. In Florida it’s 3.3%. So how do we compare in the tri-county?
- Broward: 3.1%
- Miami-Dade: 3.6%
- Palm Beach County: 3.3%
So, Florida’s substantially outperforming the national economy and Broward’s outperforming Florida! That’s a great story. PBC is doing just as well as the state and even Miami-Dade, which is the lone South Florida county to trail the state average is still outperforming the US economy significantly. Not just that but the year over year progress has been better in Miami-Dade than any other county in the state – reducing its unemployment rate from 4.7% to 3.6% year over year. There’s a really strong story playing out in South Florida that’s probably not being told well enough. Beyond the unemployment rates we have a good idea of what’s happening with specific sectors in South Florida.
Broward: Out of ten industries for jobs in the county only leisure and hospitality jobs declined last year. The three fastest areas for job growth were (year over year):
- Service: 6.4%
- Construction: 4.5%
- Trade, transportation & utilities: 2%
Miami-Dade: Out of ten industries for jobs in the county financial service and professional and business service jobs declined last year. The three fastest areas for job growth were (year over year):
- Construction: 17.1%
- Manufacturing: 7.5%
- Information services: 4.2%
Palm Beach County: There are ten industries for jobs available. Only government jobs declined in 2018. The three fastest areas for job growth were (year over year):
- Manufacturing: 8.5%
- Construction: 7.7%
- Financial services: 6.6%
You can tell what’s going on in South Florida looking at all of this together. There’s clearly a construction boom going on all throughout South Florida but especially in Miami-Dade. We’re also continuing to see the manufacturing story become an ever-increasing part of our diversified economy. Who’d have thought ten years ago, that the fastest manufacturing growth in the country would be in South Florida? South Florida’s story is a good one that keeps getting better and it’ll be exciting to see what 2019 brings.