Gov. Scott: Orlando Continues to Lead the State in Job Creation

Statement

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that the Orlando area added 45,700 new private-sector jobs over the year in February, the highest number of new jobs among all Florida metro areas. In addition, the Orlando area's unemployment rate declined by 0.9 percentage point over the year to 4.4 percent in February. Florida's statewide unemployment rate dropped to 4.9 percent in February, the state's lowest rate in eight years.

Governor Scott said, "I am proud to announce that Orlando continues to lead the state in job creation and created more than 45,000 new jobs over the year. We have cut taxes over 55 times since 2010, which has saved Florida families $5.5 billion. We will continue to cut taxes so businesses can add even more new jobs. Today's announcement is great news for our families, and shows Florida is on track to becoming first for jobs."

In February, the industries with the greatest job growth over the year in the Orlando area were leisure and hospitality with 13,000 new jobs, and professional and business services with 10,000 new jobs. The Orlando area continued to have the second-highest job demand in Florida in February with 38,236 openings. The area also had the second-highest overall demand for high-wage, high-skilled STEM occupations with 11,035 openings in February.

Since December 2010, 1,056,000 private-sector jobs have been created in Florida. Florida businesses created 235,200 private-sector jobs over the year in February, exceeding the nation's private-sector job growth rate. Also this month, 34,977 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Central Florida and the state's other 24 regional workforce boards.

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