Jacksonville’s unemployment rate dropped to an eight-year low in February, with continued strong job growth for the area.
The unemployment rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area — Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties — fell from 4.9 percent in January to 4.5 percent in February, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday.
The state agency does not adjust that data for seasonal factors but the University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project (LEIP) reported when the data is seasonally adjusted, it shows the area’s jobless rate dropped from 4.54 percent in January to 4.37 percent in February.
That was the lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the area since February 2008, when it was 4.27 percent.
The unadjusted data from the Department of Economic Opportunity shows the jobless rate was also 4.5 percent in December, which is usually a strong month for employment because of holiday season hiring.
Other than that, the unadjusted unemployment rate had not been lower since it was 4.2 percent in November 2007.
Duval County’s unemployment rate, without seasonal adjustment, fell from 5.2 percent to 4.8 percent last month, according to the Department of Economic Opportunity.
LEIP reported the county’s seasonally adjusted rate fell from 4.95 percent in January to 4.7 percent in February.
UNF economist Paul Mason saw “good news throughout” the latest employment data for Northeast Florida.
“It’s as positive as things can be,” he said.
The Department of Economic Opportunity said non-farm businesses in the Jacksonville area reported a net increase of 21,100 jobs from February 2015 through February 2016, a 3.3 percent growth rate.
That’s lower than the 4.5 percent growth rate in the 12 months through January the state agency had reported just last week, but it’s still a strong growth rate.
Jacksonville’s job growth rate was slightly better than Florida’s statewide rate of 3.2 percent and the national rate of 1.9 percent.
Every major industry sector showed job growth in the Jacksonville area except the information industry, which fell by 1.1 percent. The information industry was also the only sector to lose jobs statewide in Florida over the past year.
The Jacksonville area unemployment rate was better than Florida’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 4.9 percent last month, down 0.2-percentage points from January.
Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.9 percent in February.