Florida has recovered more than 960,000 of the around 1.3 million jobs that were lost at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, according to state officials.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) said in a recent statement that the state has recovered 964,400 jobs of those lost when the pandemic struck last spring, which threw the economy into a tailspin and led to a sharp rise in unemployment.
The Sunshine State economy now remains just over 315,000 jobs short of pre-pandemic levels, said Jerry Parrish, chief economist at the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
“We still have a few to go to get back to the pre-COVID peak of more than 9 million non-farm jobs” in Florida, Parrish said in a video presentation that’s part of the August edition of the chamber’s monthly overview of the latest jobs figures and other economic data.
Around two-thirds of the jobs that have yet to be recovered in Florida are in the leisure and hospitality industry, with Parrish saying that the pace of job recovery in that sector is accelerating.
July marked Florida’s 15th consecutive month of job growth, with the DEO announcing that the state gained 63,900 private-sector jobs over the month. That’s the largest monthly increase in private sector jobs since June 2020, when the economy saw a sharp rebound from pandemic lows.
For 12 consecutive months, Florida’s unemployment rate—at 5.1 percent in July—has remained below the national rate, which last month stood at 5.4 percent, according to the Labor Department.
“Florida’s unemployment rate continues to remain below the national average, and more people continue to return to the workforce, showing that Florida remains a leader in economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dane Eagle, DEO secretary, said in a statement.
Labor force participation in Florida grew by 83,000 over the month of July, the highest monthly gain since July 2020, bringing the state’s total to nearly 10.5 million, according to DEO.
By Tom Ozimek
