Gov. Scott: Miami Area Added 18,000 Jobs Over the Year

Press Release

Governor Rick Scott announced today that the Miami area gained 18,000 new private sector jobs in December compared to a year ago. The area's unemployment rate declined by 0.1 percentage point over the year to 5.8 percent in December. Florida has added more than 1 million private sector jobs since 2010.

Governor Scott said, "The Miami area continues to see tremendous job growth, with more than 18,000 new jobs created over the year. Florida businesses have created more than one million jobs across the state in just five years, and we will keep working until we are first for jobs."

The industries with the largest job gains over the year in the Miami area were leisure and hospitality with 6,700 new jobs; and trade, transportation, and utilities with 5,900 new jobs. The Miami metro area had the third highest job demand in Florida in December with 31,817 job openings, including 7,271 openings for high-wage, high-skill science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations.

Florida created 21,000 private-sector jobs in December, and a total of 1,025,400 private-sector jobs since December 2010. Florida's statewide unemployment rate for December was 5.0 percent. In December, more than 37,932 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource South Florida and the state's other 23 regional workforce boards.

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