Florida Leads Nation In Job Growth

Florida continued its strong job-creating streak between June 2014-June 2015

Florida has been one of the nation’s leading states for job creation over the past several years, successfully bringing its economy back from the depths of the Great Recession. At this time last year, Florida had created more net new (non-farm) jobs than any state in the union¹, and the state has continued to follow this sunny path. In the past 12 months, the Sunshine State has experienced a 3.4 percent increase in non-farm employment with positive gains month-to-month, and has seen a steady drop in its unemployment rate. In addition, Florida is expected to be among the leading job creators in the nation over the next few years, as it is home to six of the top ten metro areas with the highest forecasted employment growth.²

Gains by Month

From June 2014 to June 2015, Florida gained 266,200 new jobs, highlighted by October and November adding more than 32,000 jobs.

Gains by Industry

All Florida major non-farm industries experienced gains from June 2014 to June 2015, except for Information, which saw a loss of less than a thousand jobs. The largest gains were in Leisure and Hospitality, with 53,600 new jobs, followed by Education and Health Services, with 53,300 jobs. By percentage, the largest gains were experienced in Construction, with a 6.4 percent growth, followed by Leisure and Hospitality at 4.9 percent, and Education and Health Services at 4.6 percent growth.

1  Florida TaxWatch Economic Commentary. July 2014
2  Forbes. “The best cities for future job growth.” July 29, 2015. Projections were based on Moody’s Analytics forecasts.