Jacksonville continued to add jobs in June, but the area’s unemployment rate rose as more people entered the labor force looking for work.
The jobless rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area of Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties rose from 3.1 percent in May to 3.7 percent in June, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday.
The state agency does not adjust that data for seasonal factors.
The University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project said even when the data is seasonally adjusted, it still shows an increase from 3.12 percent in May to 3.4 percent last month.
June typically is a month when the ranks of job seekers swell with new high school and college graduates, and also students looking for temporary summer work.
UNF economist Albert Loh said teachers on summer vacation also look for temporary jobs during this time of year.
While some industries that add staff in the summer, like accommodation and food services, are hiring, not enough jobs were created to absorb all the new entrants into the labor pool.
Duval County’s unemployment rate rose, before seasonal adjustment, by 0.6 percentage points to 3.9 percent in June, the Department of Economic Opportunity said.
Loh said when the county’s unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted, it shows a rise from 2.97 percent in May to 3.5 percent in June.
Although unemployment rose in June, Loh said the trend this year has been mainly a declining jobless rate.
The unemployment rate both for Duval County and the Jacksonville metro area was about 3.9 percent a year ago, he said.
“Right now we are better off,” he said.
Jacksonville’s unemployment rate was below Florida’s statewide seasonally adjusted rate of 3.8 percent in June, unchanged from May.
Nationally, the unemployment rate was 4 percent last month.
The Department of Economic Opportunity’s survey of business payrolls found the Jacksonville area added a net total of 21,300 jobs from June 2017 through June 2018, a 3.1 percent growth rate.
The accommodation and food services sector, along with transportation, warehousing and utilities led the way with a 7.2 percent growth rate in the 12-month period.
Construction also was one of the top-performing sectors in Northeast Florida, adding 2,900 jobs in the past year, a 6.6 percent growth rate.
A handful of industry sectors are losing jobs, including a 5.8 percent drop in wholesale trade, with a net loss of 1,500 jobs in the 12-month period.
Other declining sectors included information, down 2.1 percent, and hospitals, down 1 percent.
Jacksonville’s 3.1 percent growth rate over the past year was better than the state’s growth rate of 2 percent and the national rate of 1.6 percent, the Department of Economic Opportunity said.
