JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida’s unemployment rate ticked up slightly from November to December, as the estimated number of people out of work grew by 5,000 from the state’s workforce of 10.1 million.
The change pushed the jobless rate from 3.6 percent in November to 3.7 percent in December, representing 374,000 Floridians out of work as the year ended, according to numbers posted Friday by the Department of Economic Opportunity.
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The numbers also indicate 118,000 fewer people were classified as unemployed in December compared with the end of 2016. Fields that experienced the top growth over the past year include the service industry, office jobs and construction.
On a visit Friday to the PGA Tour office in Ponte Vedra Beach, Gov. Rick Scott said the Jacksonville area created nearly 30,000 jobs in December. PGA Tour is consolidating its offices into headquarters in St. Johns County, which currently holds the state’s lowest unemployment rate, at 2.8 percent.
St. Johns is just below the 3.0 percent rate, lower than Hurricane Irma-battered Monroe County, which historically held the lowest jobless mark.
Seminole and Orange counties are both at 3.1 percent. Leon, Alachua, Clay, Pinellas, Sarasota and Walton counties are all at 3.2 percent. Counties with the highest unemployment rates in the state were Hendry, at 6.5 percent; Hardee, at 5.5 percent; and Citrus, at 5.4 percent.