PENSACOLA, Fla. —Governor Rick Scott announced today that the Pensacola area added 900 new private-sector jobs over the year in May. The area’s unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent over the year, down 1.1 percentage points in the last year.

The industry with the largest job gains in the Pensacola area over the year was education and health services with 500 new jobs. In May, the Pensacola area had 4,690 job openings, which included 1,202 openings for high-wage, high-skill, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations.

Florida businesses created 239,000 private-sector jobs over the year in May, exceeding the nation’s private-sector job growth rate for more than four years. Florida’s statewide unemployment rate dropped to 4.7 percent in May, while 33,589 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Escarosa and the state’s other 24 regional workforce boards. 

To view the May 2016 employment data visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.

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