ORLANDO, Fla. — Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that January 2018 marked 34 consecutive months of the Orlando area having the highest job creation in the state, adding 40,600 new private-sector jobs in the last year. The unemployment rate in Orlando was 3.7 percent, down 0.8 percentage point from one year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created more than 10,000 new jobs in January bringing the total number of new private-sector jobs created in Florida to nearly 1.5 million since December 2010.

Orlando led the state in job growth over the year in the following industries:

• Leisure and hospitality with 11,500 new jobs;
• Professional and business services with 8,900 new jobs;
• Construction with 6,300 new jobs; and
• Manufacturing with 3,800 new jobs.

In January, the Orlando area was once again second among state metro areas in job demand with 33,336 job openings. Orlando also remained the second-highest metro area in demand for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 9,814 openings.

As of January, Florida’s unemployment rate is at 3.9 percent, a drop of 6.9 percentage points since December 2010; this drop is faster than the national decline of 5.2 percentage points. In the last year, 137,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.4 percent, which is nearly one and a half times the national labor force growth rate of only 0.9 percent.

To view the January 2018 employment data visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.

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