Local Unemployment Holds Steady

June 17, 2017

The latest job numbers released Friday show the employment rate holding steady of the last month in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

Escambia County’s seasonably adjusted unemployment rate held steady from 4.0 percent in April to 4.0 percent in May.  There were 5,690 people reported unemployed  during the period. One year ago, unemployment in Escambia County was 4.6 percent.

“The Pensacola area added more than 3,000 new jobs over the last year, which means more opportunities are available for families in Northwest Florida. Over the past six and a half years, more than 1.37 million jobs have been created across our state and we will keep fighting to make Florida the top destination for job growth,” Gov. Rick Scott said.

The industry with the highest growth over the year in Pensacola was leisure and hospitality with 1,500 new jobs. The Pensacola area had 5,550 job openings in May, including 1,794 openings for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations.

Santa Rosa County unemployment rate was steady at 3.7 percent from April to May. Santa Rosa County had a total of  2,843 persons still unemployed. The year-ago unemployment rate in Santa Rosa County was 4.1 percent.

Florida’s jobless rate fell to 4.3 percent in May, down 0.2 percentage points from the prior month, representing 435,000 people out of work from the state’s labor force of 10.15 million. The rate is the lowest in Florida since August 2007 and matches the national unemployment mark. Gov. Rick Scott continued his focus on private-sector job creation, noting in a prepared statement that “nearly 22,000 jobs were created across our state last month.”

The jobless numbers released by the state do not include persons that have given up on finding a job and are no longer reported as unemployed.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News