Tallahassee, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that February 2019 marked 47 consecutive months of the Orlando area having the highest job creation in the state, adding 48,200 new private-sector jobs in the past year. The unemployment rate in Orlando was 3.2 percent, down 0.3 percentage point from one year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created 24,300 new private-sector jobs in February 2019.

To see the statewide job creation information, click here.

The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Orlando area were professional and business services with 21,000 new jobs and leisure and hospitality with 10,000 new jobs.

In February, the Orlando area was second among state metro areas in job demand with 50,346 job openings. Orlando also remained the second-highest metro area in demand for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations with 15,578 openings.

Florida’s annual private-sector job growth rate of 2.7 percent continues to exceed the nation’s rate of 1.9 percent. Florida’s unemployment rate of 3.5 percent represents a drop of 0.4 percentage point over the year. This is while 170,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.7 percent in the past year.

To view the February 2019 employment data, visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.

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