Miami unemployment lowest in history

Employers struggling to find candidates to fill jobs now know why: Miami-Dade’s unemployment in February was the lowest on record at 1.7%.

The previous record low was 1.8% unemployment in the condo boom – before the condo bust – in December 2005 and February 2006, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics records that stretch back to 1990.

The new record 1.7% that the bureau released Friday is far below what economists formerly regarded as full employment, generally 2% jobless. The month before the pandemic struck South Florida, February 2020, the unemployment rate had fallen to 2.1% as the economy boomed.

The unemployment rate this February for all of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan area was 2.2%, lowest in Florida. The rate for the entire state was 2.6% in February as national unemployment ticked up from 3.4% in January to 3.6%.

Miami-Dade’s sparkling unemployment figures still left 23,703 persons jobless, though that was down from 26,929 in January and 39,657 persons jobless in the county in February 2022.

That meant 1,375,127 people were at work in Miami-Dade non-agricultural jobs in February, just 613 workers fewer here than when the pandemic struck – the month of the highest employment in Miami-Dade history.

The state Department of Economic Opportunity on Friday released a report predicting total employment in Florida growing 5.2% over the next two years.

“The leisure and hospitality industry is projected to grow the fastest of all industries, at 8.1%, adding 100,653 jobs over the two-year window,” said Jimmy Heckman, the department’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research.

Jobs in professional and business services and in the education and health sectors are projected to grow 6.9% in the two-year outlook. Construction jobs are forecast to grow 4.5%, with manufacturing jobs up 4.1%.

Source: www.miamitodaynews.com