TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – As Florida added 32,700 jobs last month with a steady unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, the Jacksonville area's unemployment also remained steady at 4.6 percent.
The state released figures Friday that shows there were 411,000 unemployed Floridians out of a workforce of 10.1 million. Florida's unemployment rate remained the lowest it's been since July 2007.
The national rate is 4.3 percent.
Gov. Rick Scott said in a release that Jacksonville has added 17,400 new private-sector jobs in the last year, including 4,900 jobs in transportation and utilities and 3,500 jobs in education and health services.
The Jacksonville area once again rounded out the top five metro areas in job demand, with 19,008 openings, and ranked fifth-highest for number of high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 5,369 job openings, Scott said.
"Jacksonville is a large part of our success with area businesses creating more than 17,000 new jobs over the past year," Scott said. "We will keep working to cut taxes and make it easier for businesses to create new opportunities in Florida.”
Monroe County had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.8 percent, followed by St. Johns County at 3.3 percent and Okaloosa and Walton counties at 3.4 percent.
Hendry County had the state's highest unemployment rate at 10.9 percent, followed by Hardee County at 7.5 percent and Glades County at 6.5 percent.