Tampa Created Nearly 17,000 Jobs Over the Year

TAMPA, Fla. — Today, the Department of Economic Opportunity announced that Tampa’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.3 percent, down 1.5 percentage points from one year ago. Florida’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent in September, the lowest rate in more than a decade. As of September, Florida’s unemployment rate had dropped 6.9 percentage points since December 2010, faster than the national decline.

Private-sector businesses were severely impacted last month by Hurricane Irma, which resulted in survey data showing a reduction of job numbers solely for the month of September. This also follows the national trend for the month of September. To help Florida families and business owners quickly recover from this massive storm, Governor Scott has activated multiple disaster-related resources, such as the Disaster Unemployment Program and the Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program.

In September, the Tampa area remained first among the state metro areas in job demand with 40,383 openings. The Tampa area also continues to rank first in the state in demand for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 13,529 openings in September.

In September, 20,022 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Tampa Bay and the state’s other 23 local workforce boards. 

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

###