The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly jobs report shows increases of more than one percent in non-farm jobs in Florida and also overall in the United States for the year ending in April.
Increases were also felt in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Punta Gorda areas with bumps of .2 percent and .3 percent respectively. Sarasota’s available non-farm jobs jumped up .5 percent for the same period ending in April.
The Naples-Marco Island area was the outlier with a decrease in jobs of .6 percent.
In the leisure and hospitality sector, Southwest Florida experienced declines in North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota (-3.7 percent), Naples-Marco Island (-6.6 percent), Cape Coral-Fort Myers (-6.9 percent) and Punta Gorda (-7.3 percent).
Losses in leisure and hospitality were somewhat offset by increases in the mining, logging and construction sector, which gained about 400 jobs over the 12 months ending in April. That’s equivalent to an increase of .9 percent. Since 2019, employment in this sector has grown by 34.1 percent. The total number of people employed in the mining, logging and construction sector in Cape Coral-Fort Myers is 43,300.
By percentage, the top three sectors of job growth statewide in the past year were health care and social assistance (up 3.3 percent), transportation, warehousing, and utilities (up 2.7 percent) and professional, scientific and technical services (up 2.4 percent).
Sectors experiencing job losses in Florida included durable goods (down .5 percent year over year), accommodation and food services (down .2 percent) and real estate and rental and leasing (down .1 percent).
More people are employed in professional and business services in Florida than in any other sector, at 1,634,700 employees. That’s followed by health care and social assistance (1,358,400) and leisure and hospitality (1,335,900).
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