TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announced that the Orlando area had the highest job creation in the state, adding 35,200 new private-sector jobs in the past year. The unemployment rate in the Orlando area was 3.0 percent in January, down 0.7 percentage point of 3.7 percent from one year ago.

Orlando continues to lead all Florida metro areas in private sector job gains over the year. The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Orlando area were leisure and hospitality with 9,600 new jobs and professional and business services with 7,200 new jobs.

Statewide, Florida businesses created 31,500 new private-sector jobs in January 2020. Florida’s annual private-sector job growth rate of 2.1 percent continues to exceed the nation’s rate of 1.5 percent. Florida’s unemployment rate of 2.8 percent represents a drop of 0.6 percentage point over the year. This is while 179,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.7 percent in the past year.

To view the January 2020 employment data, visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.

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