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Miami-Dade County continues to be a good news story. The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Miami-Dade County was 3.9 percent, which was an 0.8 percentage point lower than in September 2017. It is the lowest unemployment rate from February 2008.
The numbers analyzed
In September 2018, Miami-Dade County area was the second largest metro area in year-over-the-year job gains in Florida. The County has created 50,200 new nonagricultural payroll jobs (not seasonally adjusted), from September 2017 to September 2018 which was a 4.4 percent increase. The jobs were created in different industries with the highest job creation occurring in Education & Health Services (9,700), Construction (9,600), Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities (8,900), Leisure and Hospitality (7,800), Professional and Business Services (6,700) and Manufacturing (6,400). The graphs below show the payroll data since December 2016.
In September 2018, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Miami-Dade County (taking seasonal fluctuations in the labor force into consideration) was 3.9 percent, which was an 0.8 percentage point lower than in September 2017. It is the lowest unemployment rate from February 2008.
From the data and analysis above, we see continued improvement in the local economy. Nevertheless, the community needs to remain focused on job-creation projects in targeted industries. These industries have been identified as the Miami-Dade County industries most able to create additional well-paying job opportunities, leading to an improved quality of life for Miami-Dade County residents. The Miami-Dade Beacon Council continues to aggressively work on attracting new companies to our community and work on the expansion and retention of existing business. For more information, visit www.beaconcouncil.com.
The job creation numbers are derived from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Statistics Program (CES), and only account for non-farm payroll jobs. However, the unemployment rates are derived from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics Program (LAUS), which includes farm payroll jobs as well as self-employed workers.
In addition, the federal government typically conducts interviews in sample households to determine the unemployment rate. Miami-Dade County is one of six metropolitan areas in the United States that uses a different method solely based on a statistical model derived from several data sets.
* The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unavailable at the time this report was composed.
