Jacksonville’s unemployment rate remained below 3 percent for the third straight month in November but job growth in Northeast Florida slowed, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday.
The jobless rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area (Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties) was unchanged from October at 2.9 percent.
The agency did not adjust the data for seasonal factors but when it is seasonally adjusted, the unemployment rate fell from 2.99 percent in October to 2.91 percent in November, the University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project reported.
UNF economist Albert Loh said November is not normally a month with favorable seasonal influences on unemployment, so the slight decline in the seasonally adjusted rate “suggests that the outlook continues to be very positive.”
Duval County’s unadjusted unemployment rate was unchanged at 3 percent last month, the Department of Economic Opportunity reported. Loh said when the data is seasonally adjusted, Duval County’s jobless rate rose from 3.05 percent in October to 3.26 percent in November.
The other four counties in the metro area all had unemployment rates below 3 percent in November. St. Johns County’s jobless rate of 2.5 percent was tied with Okaloosa County for the second-lowest in the state, behind Monroe County’s 2.4 percent.
Florida’s statewide unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to a seasonally adjusted 3.3 percent in November, the Department of Economic Opportunity said.
While unemployment remained low, Jacksonville did not add a lot of new jobs in November.
The number of jobs on non-farm business payrolls in the Jacksonville area rose by 12,000 from November 2017 through November 2018, a 1.7 percent growth rate.
That's down from the 2.1 percent annual growth rate reported in October and the 4.4 percent growth rate in September.
While the Jacksonville area had widespread growth across nearly every sector in previous months, several sectors had significant job losses in the 12-month period through November.
The biggest drop came in wholesale trade which declined by 1,600 jobs, or 6.2 percent.
Other sectors losing jobs included professional, scientific and technical services, down 3.5 percent, and transportation, warehousing and utilities, down 1.9 percent.
The best job gains in the 12-month period came in construction, which added 1,600 jobs, or 3.6 percent.
Jacksonville’s job growth rate was well below Florida’s statewide growth rate of 2.8 percent, but equal to the national rate of 1.7 percent.
Every metropolitan area in Florida increased jobs in the 12 months through November except Panama City, which declined 0.5 percent after Hurricane Michael devastated the region in October.
The unemployment rate in the Panama City area jumped from 2.8 percent in October to 6.2 percent in November.