TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that Florida businesses added more jobs in January than any other state. Florida’s private-sector job growth rate of 3.7 percent is also significantly higher than the nation’s at 2.2 percent. This marks the 13^th consecutive month that Florida has had the highest private-sector job growth rate among the 10 most populous states. 

Governor Scott said, “It’s exciting what’s happening in Florida - we have cut taxes by $1 billion over the past two years and added more than one million jobs in only five years. We’ve turned Florida’s economy around and we led the nation in job growth in January. This means even more families can find great jobs in our state. I’m committed to creating an environment where businesses succeed so Florida can be the best place in the world to get a job.”

This is the ninth consecutive month that Florida has created more private-sector jobs over the year than Texas, which created a total of 157,300 new jobs.

Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Cissy Proctor said, “Florida is the best place to start or grow a business, and our impressive job growth numbers prove that to the rest of the nation. The Scott Administration’s commitment to private-sector job growth has resulted in more than one million new jobs and a stronger Florida economy.”

The state’s manufacturing industry saw the fastest annual job growth rate in the nation at 3.8 percent. Since December 2010, Florida businesses have created 1,060,800 private-sector jobs. Florida also saw the lowest unemployment rate in eight years at 5.0 percent in January.

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