Gov. Rick Scott: The Tampa Area Added More Than 34,000 Jobs Over the Year in May 2015

Press Release

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced the Tampa-St. Petersburg area added 34,100 new jobs over the year in May 2015. The unemployment rate in the area declined by 0.7 percentage point over the year from 6.1 percent in May 2014 to 5.4 percent in May 2015. Florida businesses have added more than 879,000 private-sector jobs since December 2010.

Governor Scott said, "Today we announced that Tampa gained the second-highest number of jobs of all the areas in the state in May, with more than 34,000 new jobs. With 879,700 new private-sector jobs added in Florida since December 2010, we continue to get closer to our goal of making sure every Floridian who wants a job can find one."

The industries with the largest gain in jobs over the year were education and health services with 9,900 new jobs, leisure and hospitality with 9,600 new jobs, and trade, transportation, and utilities with 6,400 new jobs. Nine of the ten major industry sectors gained jobs over the year in May 2015. The Tampa area was first among the state metro areas in online job demand in May 2015 with 50,795 openings. The metro area was also first in the state in demand for high wage, high skill science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) occupations with 14,878 openings in May.

Florida created 16,200 private-sector jobs in May 2015, and a total of 879,700 private-sector jobs since December 2010. Florida's statewide unemployment rate for May 2015 was 5.7 percent. In May, more than 33,200 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Tampa Bay and the state's other 23 Regional Workforce Boards.

Source