Florida’s unemployment rate in February ticked up for the second consecutive month, but a state official said it’s “too early” to link any increase to ongoing federal job cuts.
The Florida Department of Commerce on Friday said the unemployment rate increased from 3.5 percent in January to 3.6 percent in February. Florida had a 3.4 percent jobless rate in December.
The unemployment rate in Flagler County jumped to 4.6 percent after the Department of Commerce revised figures substantially–adding several thousand people to Flagler County’s labor force: it was just under 51,000 in the December report. In February, the department put the county’s workforce at 55,524, revising that figure upward for the previous two years, along with the number of people on unemployment and the number of people holding jobs, which now exceeds 53,000.
The February rate reflected an estimated 398,000 Floridians qualified as out of work from a labor force of 11.196 million. The number of unemployed people and the labor force each increased by about 8,000 people in February, according to a Department of Commerce report.
The jobless rate was up from a near-historic low of 3.2 percent in February 2024. The national unemployment rate last month was 4.1 percent, up from 3.9 percent a year earlier.
The new numbers show federal jobs in Florida decreased by 700 from January to February, as the Trump administration took office and instituted a Department of Government Efficiency to cut federal spending.
Jimmy Heckman, the Department of Commerce’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research, said he has not seen effects of the federal actions on Florida’s unemployment numbers.
“If there are any impacts, it’s still too early to see those yet,” Heckman told reporters Friday. “We are reporting on information that was collected in mid-February.”
The report showed that employment in the state’s leisure and hospitality sector lost a net 3,600 positions in February, while the category of trade, transportation and utilities lost 3,300. Meanwhile, construction gained 5,500 positions, which the state linked to boosts in residential construction trades such as electrical, painting, roofing and plumbing contractors.
Also, the manufacturing sector added 1,400 jobs. Heckman said Florida has 432,000 manufacturing workers, and by “growing very consistently” over the past year is at its highest level since about 2002. Gov. Ron DeSantis also issued a statement touting increased manufacturing jobs.
“These are good jobs; these are strong businesses,” DeSantis said. “We need to be making things in the United States, and there’s no better place to make things than the free state of Florida.”
The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area had the state’s lowest unemployment rate in February at 3.2 percent.
Among other regions, the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford and Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin areas were at 3.6 percent, and the Tallahassee, Naples-Marco Island, Jacksonville and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater areas were at 3.8 percent.
The Villages and Wildwood area had the highest rate at 6.8 percent, followed by the Homosassa Springs area at 5.7 percent and the Sebring area at 5.5 percent.
The statewide rate is seasonally adjusted, while the metro rates are not adjusted.
–News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive
