Governor Ron DeSantis announced Friday in a press release that Florida’s job growth in September grew three times faster over the month than the rest of the nation.
According to the press release, overall for the month, Florida gained 84,500 total jobs, including nearly 73,000 private-sector jobs, which marks 17 months of private-sector job growth, increasing by 5.6% over the year.
The level of this month’s private sector job growth rate has only occurred in Florida five times is the last in 30 years. Florida’s private-sector job growth rate was 0.9%, where the national rate sits at 0.3%.
Additionally, the state has experienced 11 consecutive months of labor force increases, adding 50,000 workers in September. Florida’s growth in the labor force represents a 5.4% increase over-the-year, which is higher than the national rate of 0.8%. The labor force increased by 540,000 over the year, with 423,000 of that increase occurring in the last 6 months.
The release indicates that the increase is largely due to the success of the state’s ‘Return to Work’ initiative that Governor DeSantis and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) announced in May.
In total, Florida has gained more than one million jobs since April 2020.
“While the entire nation gained 194,000 jobs in September, Florida gained 84,500 jobs in the same month – we are outpacing the nation in job growth and job opportunities because businesses know that Florida will stand up for them,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.
He added, “Despite tremendous national headwinds and economic uncertainty, Florida has reached a level of job growth only seen on four other occasions in the past 30 years. We will continue to work hard to keep Florida open, free and built for opportunity.”
Florida’s unemployment rate of 5% in August, dropped .1% to 4.9% in September. As stated in the release, that means, “more people are actively returning to seeking work and confident in the state’s economy providing them with the ability to find new employment.”
It adds that while Florida is seeing positive labor force growth, the nation is not. The release suggests that the nation’s drop in labor force, “could be a sign that other states’ jobseekers are losing confidence in employment opportunities and have stopped looking for work.”
“Under Governor DeSantis’ leadership, Florida is seeing positive economic signs that indicate our state’s economy has recovered quickly and successfully,” said Secretary Dane Eagle of the DEO. “Florida continues to provide meaningful job opportunities for individuals moving to our state and entering our labor force. With our unemployment rate decreasing and labor force increasing, we will work to further this great success by making investments that continue to strengthen our economy and increase our state’s resiliency,” he concluded.
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Casey Owens is a contributing writer for The Florida Capital Star. Follow him on Twitter at @cowensreports. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0.
