ORLANDO, Fla. — Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that May 2018 marked 38 consecutive months of the Orlando area having the highest job creation in the state, adding 43,800 new private-sector jobs in the last year. The unemployment rate in Orlando was a low 3 percent, down 0.7 percentage point from one year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created 19,000 new jobs in May bringing the total number of new private-sector jobs created in Florida to more than 1.5 million since December 2010.

To see the statewide job creation information, click here.

The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Orlando area were professional and business services with 11,000 new jobs and leisure and hospitality with 10,800 new jobs.

In May, the Orlando area was once again second among state metro areas in job demand with 37,958 job openings. Orlando also remained the second-highest metro area in demand for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 11,288 openings.

As of May, Florida’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent, a drop of 7.0 percentage points since December 2010; this drop is faster than the national decline of 5.5 percentage points. In the last year, 124,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.2 percent, which is greater than the national labor force growth rate of 1.1 percent.

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

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