Jacksonville’s unemployment rate was unchanged in August as job growth slowed down slightly.
The jobless rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area of Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties was 3.2% last month, the same as in July, the Florida Department of Commerce reported Sept. 15.
The size of the labor force, consisting of people with jobs or actively seeking employment, grew by about 3,000 to 885,527 while the number of people saying they had jobs also grew by about 3,000, according to the department’s monthly survey of households.
A separate survey of business payrolls found non-farm employers added 28,300 jobs from August 2022 through August 2023, a 3.6% growth rate.
That’s lower than the July growth rate of 4.2%.
Duval County’s unemployment rate edged up from 3.2% in July to 3.3% in August.
The other four counties in the metro area were below Duval. St. Johns County, at 2.7%, tied for fourth lowest among the state’s 67 counties behind Miami-Dade at 1.9%, Monroe at 2% and Okaloosa at 2.7%.
Nassau County was at 2.9% in August, with Clay at 3% and Baker at 3.1%.
Florida’s statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged at 2.7% in August.
The Department of Commerce does not adjust metropolitan area data for seasonal factors in its monthly reports. Before the adjustment, Florida’s statewide rate was 3.1%, unchanged from July and slightly below the Jacksonville rate.
The statewide job growth rate was lower than Jacksonville’s at 3.1% in August.
Nearly all private industry sectors in the Jacksonville area have been adding jobs in the past year.
The one exception was the information sector with a net loss of 100 jobs since August 2022, a 0.7% decline.
The biggest growth sectors in the 12-month period were professional and business services, up 5,500 jobs or 4.4%; private education and health services, up 5,500 or 4.7%; and leisure and hospitality, up 4,600 or 5.2%.
On a percentage basis, wholesale trade was the fastest growing sector at 7.6%, gaining 2,200 jobs, and manufacturing was next at 7.3% with an increase of 2,500 jobs.