MIAMI, Fla. /Florida Newswire/ — This week Florida Governor Rick Scott announced that the Miami – Miami Beach-Kendall metro area gained 42,900 new jobs in January 2015 compared to a year ago. The area’s unemployment rate declined by 1.1 percentage point over the year, from 6.9 percent in January 2014 to 5.8 percent in January 2015. Florida businesses have added more than 801,000 private-sector jobs since December 2010.
Governor Scott said, “With nearly 43,000 new jobs over the year in January, more Floridians in the Miami area are getting the jobs they need to succeed and provide for their families. Across the state, Florida private-sector businesses have created more than 801,000 jobs since December 2010, and we will continue working until Florida is the best place in the world to get a job and live the American Dream.”
The industries with the largest job gains over the year were trade, transportation, and utilities with 11,200 new jobs, education and health services with 9,500 new jobs, and professional and business services with 8,700 new jobs. Nine of the ten major industry sectors gained jobs over the year in January 2015 in the metro area. The Miami metro area had the second-highest online job demand in Florida in January 2015 with 29,854 job openings and had the third-highest number of openings for high wage, high skill science technology engineering math (STEM) occupations in January 2015 with 6,961 online openings.
Every March, the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases revised historical employment (jobs) and unemployment rates based on a benchmarking process to adjust the data. These benchmark revisions are mandated by BLS and take place this time every year in every state. This process introduces new population inputs from the most recent Census and other revisions to economic data which leads to changes in the original estimates.
Florida created 14,600 private-sector jobs in January 2015, and a total of 801,100 private-sector jobs since December 2010. Florida’s statewide unemployment rate for January 2015 was 5.7 percent. In January, more than 35,500 Floridians were placed in jobs by CareerSource Central Florida, along with the state’s other 23 Regional Workforce Boards.
To view the January 2015 employment data visit www.floridajobs.org/labor-market-information/labor-market-information-press-releases/monthly-press-releases.
