Jacksonville’s unemployment rate rose in July despite an increase in jobs, as a large number of people started actively looking for work.
The jobless rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area — consisting of Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties — rose from 5.5 percent in June to 5.6 percent in July, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday.
The agency’s survey found that almost 7,000 more people found jobs in July but almost 8,000 started looking for jobs, so the unemployment rate went up. That’s a normal summer trend as high school and college graduates enter the labor force.
However, even when the data is adjusted for that seasonal factor, it still shows the Jacksonville unemployment rate rose from 5.2 percent to 5.32 percent, the University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project (LEIP) reported.
“Obviously it’s a blip in the wrong direction, but I think it’s pretty insignificant,” said UNF economist Paul Mason.
Duval County’s unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 6.1 percent in July, said the Department of Economic Opportunity, which does not adjust local data for seasonal factors. LEIP reported on a seasonally adjusted basis, Duval County’s jobless rate rose from 5.74 percent to 5.92 percent.
St. Johns County continued to have the second-lowest unemployment rate in the state at 4 percent (not seasonally adjusted), behind Monroe County’s 3.9 percent, the Department of Economic Opportunity reported.
A separate survey of employers by the state agency found that Jacksonville businesses added 19,600 workers from July 2014 through July 2015, a 3.2 percent growth rate.
The job growth was led by a huge jump in the leisure and hospitality sector, which added 7,700 jobs in the 12 months, a 10 percent growth rate.
At the other end of the spectrum was the information sector, where jobs fell by 4.3 percent.
Statewide, the information sector was the only major industry that lost jobs in the past year, the Department of Economic Opportunity said. Florida’s overall job growth was 3.5 percent.
Florida’s statewide unemployment rate fell by 0.2 points to a seasonally adjusted 5.4 percent in July, the agency said.