MIAMI, Fla. — Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that the Miami area added 17,200 new private-sector jobs in the last year, the fourth-highest number of jobs among all Florida metro areas. The unemployment rate in Miami was 4.9 percent in August, down 0.9 percentage point from a year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created 22,100 new jobs in August and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.0 percent, the lowest rate since June 2007. Since December 2010, Florida businesses have created 1,441,000 new private-sector jobs.

The industries with the highest growth over the year in Miami were the leisure and hospitality industry with 7,300 new jobs and the trade, transportation and utilities industry with 6,300 new jobs. The area continued to rank third among the state’s metro areas with 26,562 openings, and once again offered the third-highest number of high-skill, high-wage STEM jobs with 6,942 openings.

Florida’s annual job growth rate of 2.9 percent exceeds the nation’s rate of 1.7 percent, continuing the 65-month trend of our state’s rate being higher than the nation’s. In August, 23,936 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource South Florida and the state’s other 23 local workforce boards.

To view the August 2017 employment data visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.

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