FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that the Fort Lauderdale area added 9,800 new private-sector jobs in the past year, continuing to be among the top five Florida metro areas for private-sector job growth. Fort Lauderdale’s unemployment rate dropped to a low 3.5 percent in August, down 0.5 percentage point from one year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created 20,000 new jobs in August bringing the total number of new private-sector jobs created in Florida to 1,615,500 since December 2010.

To see the statewide job creation information, click here.

The industries with the highest growth over the year in Fort Lauderdale were construction with 3,900 new jobs and education and health services with 2,000 new jobs. Fort Lauderdale remains among the top four metro areas in online job demand in Florida with 23,740 openings in August. Also, the area had the fourth-highest number of openings for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 6,066 job ads.

As of August, Florida’s unemployment rate remained at a low of 3.7 percent, a drop of 7.1 percentage points since December 2010; this drop is faster than the national decline of 5.4 percentage points. In the past year, 121,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.2 percent, which nearly doubled the national labor force growth rate of 0.7 percent.

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

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