Jacksonville’s job market recovered to its pre-pandemic level a year ago, but the manufacturing sector is lagging behind other industries.
The latest data from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity showed nonfarm businesses in the Jacksonville metro area of Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties had 763,100 workers on their payrolls in June.
That’s better than the 732,000 payroll jobs in February 2020, the month before the coronavirus pandemic caused many businesses to shut down and lay off workers.
However, the manufacturing sector has not yet caught up to its pre-pandemic level. The number of manufacturing jobs was 33,200 in June 2022, slightly below the February 2020 level of 33,300.
Area manufacturing jobs have been trending down for more than two decades since they peaked at 40,600 in June and July 2000.
When jobs peaked in June 2000, manufacturing accounted for 7.2% of all nonfarm jobs in Northeast Florida.
That percentage dropped to 4.4% by June 2022.
The Department of Economic Opportunity’s data dates back to 1990 when manufacturing was an even bigger part of the Jacksonville economy.
The 36,800 manufacturing jobs in January 1990 represented 9% of all jobs.
The Jacksonville trend mirrors what is happening to manufacturing jobs through the Southeast before the pandemic.
A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics study found that manufacturing jobs dropped from 16.4% of total jobs in the Southeast in 1990 to 8.4% in 2019.
Florida actually has increased the number of manufacturing establishments over the last three decades but its percentage of manufacturing jobs fell from 9.74% in 1990 to 4.22% in 2019.
The BLS study said improvements in labor productivity have reduced the need for more workers in some industries.
