Jacksonville’s unemployment rate remained at a post-coronavirus pandemic high in July with continued slow job growth, the Florida Department of Commerce reported Aug. 15.
The jobless rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area of Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties was 4.2% last month, unchanged from June.
The June and July rates were the highest for Northeast Florida since it was 4.3% in August 2021, when the economy was recovering from the pandemic.
While the overall unemployment rate was unchanged, the rate in each of the five counties in the metropolitan area rose by 0.1 percentage point in July.
Duval County had the highest rate at 4.3%, with Clay at 4.2%, Baker and St. Johns both at 4.1% and Nassau at 4%.
The labor force in the metropolitan area, consisting of people with jobs or actively looking for work, rose by about 7,000 to 868,745 in July, a normal seasonal trend as college and high school graduates enter the work force.
Not all of them found jobs, which is why the unemployment rate remained high. The number of people who said they were employed in the monthly survey of households rose by about 6,300 to 831,982.
A separate survey of non-farm employers in the Jacksonville area found their payrolls grew by 9,600 from July 2024 through July 2025, a 1.2% increase.
That was slightly higher than the 1.1% growth rate in May and June, which was a post-pandemic low.
The highest growth came in the private education and health services sector which added 8,800 jobs in the 12-month period, a 6.8% gain.
The transportation, warehousing and utilities sector grew by 1,400 jobs, or 2.6%, and construction rose by 1,200, or 2.3%.
The biggest job losses came in the financial activities sector, which fell by 2,200, or 2.9%, in the 12-month period.
The broad category of administrative and support and waste management and remediation services fell by 1,700, or 3.1%, and manufacturing declined by 600, or 1.6%.
Jacksonville’s job growth was slightly behind Florida’s statewide growth rate of 1.3% from July 2024 through July 2025.
Florida’s unemployment rate was unchanged from June at a seasonally adjusted 3.7% in July.
The Department of Commerce does not adjust local area data for seasonal factors, such as summer growth in job seekers, in its monthly reports.