Jacksonville’s unemployment rate fell last month to its lowest level since June 2008, as did the statewide rate, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday.
The unemployment rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area — Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties — fell from 5.8 percent in September to 5.6 percent in October, the department said.
Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell by 0.1 point to 6.0 percent, it said, which was higher than the U.S. rate of 5.8 percent.
The state agency does not adjust the Jacksonville data for seasonal factors, but the University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project (LEIP) reported that when the data is seasonally adjusted, it shows Jacksonville’s unemployment was unchanged from last month’s 5.76 percent.
Duval County’s unemployment rate fell from a seasonally adjusted 6.39 percent in September to 6.02 percent in October, LEIP said.
The unemployment data is derived from a survey of households. Both in the Jacksonville metropolitan area and in Duval County, the number of people who said they are employed was virtually unchanged in October, but there were drops in the number of people who reported themselves as unemployed.
“That has to mean people left the labor force,” said UNF economist Paul Mason.
He said hopefully, it’s an indication of people voluntarily leaving the labor force due to retirement or other reasons, as opposed to people leaving because they are discouraged and stopped looking for jobs.
People who are unemployed but not actively looking for work are not counted as unemployed.
A separate survey of business payrolls by the Department of Economic Opportunity found the number of jobs in the Jacksonville area increased by 22,000 from October 2013 through October 2014, a 3.6 percent growth rate.
That was better than Florida’s growth rate of 2.7 percent and the national job growth rate of 1.9 percent.
Most major job sectors have been growing jobs in the Jacksonville area, with the best gains coming in professional and business services, up 8.8 percent; leisure and hospitality, up 5.8 percent; and construction, up 5.5 percent.
The only major private industry sector that has been losing jobs in Jacksonville is the information sector, down 1.1 percent. Total government jobs, on a federal, state and local level, were down by 0.3 percent.
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