Tallahassee, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that May 2019 marked 50 consecutive months of the Orlando area having the highest job creation in the state, adding 38,700 new private-sector jobs in the past year. The unemployment rate in the Orlando area was 2.8 percent, down 0.3 percentage point from one year ago.

The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Orlando area were professional and business services with 14,700 new jobs and leisure and hospitality with 11,600 new jobs.

In May, the Orlando area was second among state metro areas in job demand with 52,119 job openings. Orlando also remained the second-highest metro area in demand for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 16,237 openings.

Statewide, Florida businesses created 16,000 new private-sector jobs in May 2019. Florida’s annual private-sector job growth rate of 2.7 percent continues to exceed the nation’s rate of 1.8 percent. Florida’s unemployment rate of 3.4 percent represents a drop of 0.3 percentage point over the year. This is while 124,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.2 percent in the past year.

To view the May 2019 employment data, visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.

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