Miami-Dade Added Nearly 19,000 Jobs in April as Unemployment Rate Dipped to 5 percent
Media Contact:
Maria Camacho
mcamacho@beaconcouncil.com
(305) 579-1341
(Miami) Miami-Dade added 18,700 new payroll jobs in the past year and unemployment decreased to 5 percent in April, from 5.4 percent the previous month, according to statistics released Friday.
“We’re encouraged as we continue to see year-over-year job growth across sectors,” said Jaap Donath, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Research & Strategic Planning for the Miami-Dade Beacon Council. “And we’re pleased to see the Miami metro area ranked No. 1 in startup activity in the U.S., according to Kauffman Foundation’s 2017 index. While we are pleased that our unemployment rate is descending, unemployment figures may not take into account our economic vitality as it relates to start-ups and the contractors and service providers that they employ.”
The numbers analyzed
Miami-Dade County created 18,700 new nonagricultural payroll jobs (not seasonally adjusted), from April 2016 to April 2017 which was a 1.6 percent increase. Miami-Dade County continues to show year over year gains. Improvements in the non-farm payroll jobs can be found in a variety of sectors. Between March 2017 and April 2017, Miami-Dade County increased nonagricultural payroll jobs by 1,700 or 0.1 percentage point.
The not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Miami- Dade County was 5.0 in April 2017, which was a 0.4 percentage point decrease from March 2017 at 5.4 percent. This was the second time that the unemployment reached 5.0 percent since the recession. Compared to last year April there was also a 0.4 percentage point decrease with the unemployment rate at 5.4 percent.
In April 2017, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Miami-Dade County (taking seasonal fluctuations in the labor force into consideration) was 5.2 percent, which was an 0.1 percentage point lower than April 2016.
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.
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 is unavailable at the time this report was composed.
