JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Today, the Department of Economic Opportunity announced that the Jacksonville area’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent in September, down 1.4 percentage points from one year ago. Florida’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent in September, the lowest rate in more than a decade. As of September, Florida’s unemployment rate had dropped 6.9 percentage points since December 2010, faster than the national decline.

Private-sector businesses were severely impacted last month by Hurricane Irma, which resulted in survey data showing a reduction of job numbers solely for the month of September. This also follows the national trend for the month of September. To help Florida families and business owners quickly recover from this massive storm, Governor Scott has activated multiple disaster-related resources, such as the Disaster Unemployment Program and the Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program.

The Jacksonville area once again rounded out the top five metro areas in job demand, with 18,831 openings, and ranked fourth-highest for number of high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 5,431 job openings.

In September, 20,022 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Northeast Florida and the state’s other 23 local workforce boards. 

To view the September 2017 employment data visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.

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