ORLANDO, Fla. — Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that Florida businesses have created more than 1.5 million jobs since December 2010, including 12,500 private-sector jobs in March and more than 167,000 in the past year. Governor Scott made the announcement at VOXX International in Orlando, which moved its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility to Orlando in 2015.

Governor Scott said, “When I took office, I made it my number one mission to make Florida the best place in the world for job creation. I’m proud to announce today that Florida has achieved another incredible milestone – 1.5 million private-sector jobs have been created since December 2010. This incredible turnaround should serve as a blueprint for the rest of the country. If you cut taxes, eliminate burdensome regulation and invest in the priorities that matter most to families, like education, job creators respond by growing and creating jobs. Congratulations to every business who has chosen Florida as the best place to create jobs.”

Florida’s annual job growth rate of 2.3 percent continues to exceed the nation’s rate of 1.8 percent. Florida’s annual job growth rate has outpaced the nation for 71 of the past 72 months. The only month in which Florida did not exceed the nation was a result of Hurricane Irma.

As of March, Florida’s unemployment rate remains low at 3.9 percent, a drop of 6.9 percentage points since December 2010; this drop is faster than the national decline of 5.2 percentage points. In the past year, 132,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.3 percent, which is greater than the national labor force growth rate of 1.0 percent.

Cissy Proctor, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, said, “Since December 2010, businesses have created more than 1.5 million jobs for Floridians and their families. This tremendous growth demonstrates Florida businesses’ confidence in our economy and our talented workforce.”

Other positive economic indicators include:

• Private-sector industries gaining the most jobs over-the-year were:
• Professional and business services with 38,100 new jobs;
• Leisure and hospitality with 32,300 new jobs;
• Construction with 31,600 new jobs;
• Education and health services with 21,200 new jobs; and
• Financial activities with 15,600 new jobs.
• Florida job postings showed 255,327 openings in March 2018.

To view the March 2018 employment data visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.

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