TAMPA, Fla. — Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that the Tampa area added 31,900 new private-sector jobs in the last year, creating the second-highest number of jobs among all Florida metro areas. Tampa’s unemployment rate was a low 3.3 percent, down 0.6 percentage point from one year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created 19,000 new jobs in May bringing the total number of new private-sector jobs created in Florida to more than 1.5 million since December 2010.

To see the statewide job creation information, click here.

The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Tampa area were leisure and hospitality with 8,900 new jobs and financial activities with 8,500 new jobs.

The Tampa area remained first among the state metro areas in job demand in May with 43,349 openings. The Tampa area also continues to rank first in the state in demand for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 14,455 openings in May.

As of May, Florida’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent, a drop of 7.0 percentage points since December 2010; this drop is faster than the national decline of 5.5 percentage points. In the last year, 124,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.2 percent, which is greater than the national labor force growth rate of 1.1 percent.

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

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