TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s unemployment rate dropped to 2.5% last month, the second lowest rate in the state’s recorded history and the lowest rate since October 2006, officials announced Friday.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a statement that Florida also had the second fastest Gross Domestic Product growth in the U.S., growing at an annual rate of 1.6% in the second quarter of 2022 while the national GDP has declined for two consecutive quarters.
Florida's success has come as the national unemployment rate has also dropped under President Joe Biden. The national unemployment rate dropped fro 4.7 percent in September 2021 to 3.5 percent in September 2022.
The national U-6 unemployment rate, which includes the underemployed, those who have given up looking for work, and others, also declined to 6.4 percent from 7.2 percent in January. The September U-6 was the lowest rate in the last five years of data.
Back at the state level, between September 2021 and September 2022, Florida’s labor force grew by 316,000, or 3%, officials said. For that same time period, total private sector employment grew by 461,500 jobs, or 5.8%. Officials said that's faster than the national private sector job growth rate of 4.4% over the year.
As of last month, Florida employers had added jobs for 29 consecutive months since May 2020.
