MIAMI, Fla. — Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that Florida businesses have created more than 1.5 million jobs since December 2010. Miami added 13,800 new private-sector jobs in the past year, the fourth-highest number of jobs among all Florida metro areas. The unemployment rate in Miami was five percent in March. Statewide, Florida businesses created 12,500 new jobs in March.

Governor Scott said, “Miami businesses have created nearly 14,000 jobs over the past year, demonstrating that employers have confidence in South Florida’s talented workforce and our state’s business-friendly policies. With more than 1.5 million new private-sector jobs created since 2010, Florida continues to outpace the nation as the destination for job growth.”

The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Miami area were construction with 4,200 new jobs and manufacturing with 3,900 new jobs. The area continued to rank third among the state’s metro areas in job demand with 31,404 openings in March, and once again offered the third-highest number of high-skill, high-wage STEM jobs with 7,058 openings in March.

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 last 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.

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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