TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announced the West Palm Beach area added 3,700 new private-sector jobs in the past year. The West Palm Beach area’s unemployment rate was 3.0 percent in February, down 0.4 percentage point from one year ago.

The industry with the highest growth over the year in the West Palm Beach area was leisure and hospitality with 3,300 new jobs.

Statewide, Florida businesses created 6,300 new private-sector jobs in February 2020. Florida’s annual private-sector job growth rate of 2.0 percent continued to exceed the nation’s rate of 1.7 percent. Florida’s unemployment rate of 2.8 percent represents a drop of 0.6 percentage point over the year. This is while 195,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.9 percent in the past year.

To view the February 2020 employment data, visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.

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