Jacksonville’s unemployment rate edged higher in June, despite continued growth in jobs in the area.
The jobless rate for the Jacksonville metropolitan area — consisting of Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties — rose from 3.8 percent in May to 4.2 percent, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday.
The increase was mainly the result of recent high school and college graduates entering the workforce and looking for jobs, a normal seasonal trend as summer begins. However, the state agency does not adjust the Jacksonville data for seasonal factors.
When the data is seasonally adjusted, it shows a slight uptick from 3.83 percent in May to 3.86 percent last month, the University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project reported.
“It’s still pretty solid,” UNF economist Albert Loh said.
“These were still much lower than what most economists would consider the natural unemployment rate,” he said. The natural rate would be close to 5 percent.
“The unemployment rate is not really a big issue now,” said Loh, adding the more significant issue is slow growth in wages.
The Department of Economic Opportunity does not report monthly data on wages as it reports employment data.
Jacksonville businesses reported a net gain of 23,600 jobs from June 2016 through June 2017, a 3.6 percent annual increase.
Nearly every major private sector industry reported an increase in jobs over the past year, but the construction industry was flat.
Jacksonville’s job growth beat Florida’s statewide growth rate of 2.9 percent.
Jacksonville’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was lower than Florida’s statewide June rate of 4.1 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from May.
Duval County’s unemployment rate rose from 4. 1 percent to 4.5 percent in June, without seasonal adjustment, the Department of Economic Opportunity said.
Loh said Duval County’s seasonally adjusted rate also increased from 3.69 percent to 4.04 percent.
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