Jacksonville’s unemployment rate rose to a 10-month high in June despite a big jump in jobs, the Florida Department of Commerce reported July 21.
The jobless rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area of Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties rose from 2.7% in May to 3% in June, the highest level since it was also 3% in August 2022.
Rising unemployment rates are a normal spring trend because of high school and college graduates entering the labor force and not immediately finding work. The Department of Commerce does not provide seasonally adjusted data for metropolitan areas in its monthly reports.
The number of people who were employed, according to the agency’s survey of Jacksonville area households, rose by about 13,000 to 853,859 in June. However, the labor force – consisting of people with jobs or actively seeking employment – rose by almost 17,000 to 880,674, so the unemployment rate rose.
The agency said Florida’s statewide unemployment rate was unchanged at 2.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis in June. But before seasonal adjustment, it rose from 2.7% in May to 3% last month, the same increase as in Jacksonville.
Duval County’s unemployment rate, without seasonal adjustment, rose from 2.8% to 3.2%. The other four counties in the region also had higher rates but remained below 3%.
St. Johns County was the lowest at 2.6%, with Nassau at 2.8% and Baker and Clay both at 2.9%.
The Department of Economic Opportunity’s survey of non-farm businesses in Northeast Florida showed continued big gains in payrolls over the past year.
Those businesses increased jobs by 39,100 from June 2022 through June 2023, a 5.1% growth rate.
Job gains were widespread across every major industry sector.
The biggest gains came from the leisure and hospitality sector, which rose by 9,300 jobs, or 10.7%, and professional, scientific and technical services, up 6,100 or 11%.