The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) announced on Friday that the state unemployment rate remained at 4.7 percent for March, the same as February.
DEO stressed that Florida has experienced eleven consecutive months of job growth, gaining 32,900 private-sector jobs in the month of March 2021. From April 2020 to March 2021, Florida has gained a total of 777,600 private-sector jobs.
The national unemployment rate stood at 6 percent in March.
“Through Governor DeSantis’ strong leadership, Florida’s resiliency throughout the COVID-19 pandemic continues to excel at a higher pace than the nation.” said Dane Eagle, the executive director of the DEO. “Florida businesses have remained open and our economy continues to provide opportunities for Floridians to return to work and provide for their families.”
Florida lost 1,269,200 jobs from February to April 2020 and has since gained back more than half of the jobs lost–750,700 jobs. The number of jobs in Florida was 8,553,600 in March 2021, down 445,800 jobs compared to a year ago. All ten major industries experienced negative over-the-year job growth in March. The industry losing the most jobs over the year was leisure and hospitality which has seen 236,000 fewer jobs.
In March, Monroe County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 3.3 percent), followed by St. Johns County and Wakulla County at 3.6 percent each, and Alachua County, Clay County, Collier County, Nassau County, Okaloosa County, Santa Rosa County and Union County at 4.0 percent each.
Miami-Dade County had the highest unemployment rate in the state at 8.2 percent in March, followed by Sumter County at 6.6 percent and Citrus County and Osceola County at 6.4 percent each.
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