TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announced that the Fort Lauderdale area added 13,200 new private-sector jobs in the past year, the fourth-highest in the state. The Fort Lauderdale area’s unemployment rate was 3.0 percent in January, down 0.7 percentage point from one year ago.

The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Fort Lauderdale area were trade, transportation and utilities, leading the state metro areas, with 6,100 jobs and professional and business services with 5,000 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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