Jacksonville’s unemployment rate fell in September from a four-year high in August, the Florida Department of Commerce reported Dec. 11.
The jobless rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area of Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties fell from 4.6% in August to 4.3% in September.
The report on September data was delayed two months because of the federal government shutdown in October and early November. The labor market data for local areas is generated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly surveys, which were not conducted during the shutdown.
Jacksonville’s August unemployment rate was the highest since it was 4.7% in June 2021, as the economy was recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
All five counties in the metro area recorded declines of 0.2 percentage points in September. Duval, Baker and Clay counties were all at 4.4% in September, while Nassau and St. Johns were at 4.2%.
Florida’s statewide unemployment rate rose by 0.1 point to a seasonally adjusted 3.9% in September.
The Department of Commerce does not adjust local area data for seasonal factors in its monthly reports.
Job growth in Northeast Florida continued to be slow, with non-farm employers increasing their payrolls by 7,200 from September 2024 through September 2025, a 0.9% growth rate.
That’s slightly better than the August growth rate of 0.7%, which was the lowest level since the pandemic caused job totals to drop every month from April 2020 through March 2021.
One big growth sector was the combined category of private education and health services, which added 7,100 jobs in the 12 months through September, a 5.4% growth rate.
However, that was offset by job losses in several sectors.
The largest drops were in the category of administrative and support and waste management and remediation services, which fell by 1,900 or 3.4%, and the financial activities sector, which also dropped by 1,900, a 2.5% decline.
Manufacturing employment fell by 500, or 1.4%.
Although the state agency has not reported on data beyond September, a monthly survey of Jacksonville area manufacturing firms by the University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project has reported manufacturing employment continued to decline in October and November.
The Department of Commerce said it will report labor market data for October and November on Jan. 7.