Jacksonville’s unemployment rate fell back near historic lows in February, with Northeast Florida businesses reporting a surge in hiring.
The jobless rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area (Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties) fell from a revised 3.2% in January to 2.8% in February, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported March 25.
The rate had dropped to 2.6% in December, which was the lowest since it was also 2.6% in December 1998.
Duval County’s unemployment rate fell from 3.5% in January to 3.1% last month, but the other four counties in the metropolitan area were all below 3%.
St. Johns County had the second-lowest rate in the state at 2.3%, trailing only Monroe County’s 2%.
Nassau County tied for the third-lowest rate at 2.5%.
Baker and Clay counties were both at 2.7%.
Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage points in February to 3.3%, the Department of Economic Opportunity said. The agency does not adjust the Jacksonville data for seasonal factors.
The agency’s survey of business payrolls found Jacksonville added 38,900 jobs from February 2021 through February 2022, a 5.4% growth rate.
The number of jobs grew by 10,900 in February alone to 758,200.
The gains were led by the professional and business services sector which rose 12,400 in the 12-month period, an 11.2% gain.
The leisure and hospitality sector continued its comeback from coronavirus-related shutdowns by adding 7,700 jobs, a 10.1% gain.
Construction was also strong with an increase of 4,300 jobs in the past year, or 9.2%.
As businesses hire more people, they are also increasing pay with average hourly earnings of $32.97 for Jacksonville area workers in February, compared with an average of $30.41 for all of 2021.
Jacksonville was slightly behind Florida’s statewide job growth rate of 6.1% in February. However, Northeast Florida was ahead of the state’s average hourly earnings of $28.98.