Gov. Rick Scott: West Palm Beach Added More Than 18,000 Jobs Over the Year in May 2015

Press Release

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that the West Palm Beach metro area added 18,300 jobs over the year in May 2015. The metro area's unemployment rate declined by 0.8 percentage point over the year, from 5.9 percent in May 2014 to 5.1 percent in May 2015. Florida businesses have added more than 879,000 private-sector jobs since December 2010.

Governor Scott said, "New opportunities continue to grow in West Palm Beach, with more than 18,000 new jobs over the year in May. This positive job growth, along with a lower unemployment rate, is great news for businesses and families in West Palm Beach."

The industries with the largest job gains over the year were professional and business services with 6,300 new jobs, education and health services with 3,900 new jobs, and trade, transportation, and utilities with 2,500 new jobs each. Nine of the ten major industry sectors gained jobs over the year. In May 2015, the West Palm Beach metro area had 20,506 online job openings. The metro area had 5,432 job openings for high wage, high skill science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

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 Palm Beach Florida and the state's other 23 Regional Workforce Boards.

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