FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that the Fort Lauderdale area added 24,800 new private-sector jobs in the last year, the third-highest number of jobs among all Florida metro areas. Fort Lauderdale’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.9 percent in August, down 0.9 percentage point from one 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 Fort Lauderdale were education and health services with 5,900 new jobs and construction with 4,700 new jobs. Fort Lauderdale remains among the top four metro areas in job demand in Florida with 21,704 job openings in August. The area also had the fifth-highest number of openings for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 5,669 online 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 Broward 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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