Miami-Dade County Created Over 26,300 Jobs in the Last Year

February Employment Report

Presented by CareerSource South Florida

The numbers analyzed

In February 2019, Miami MSA area was the second largest metro area in year-over-the-year job gains in Florida, following Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area. The County created 26,300 new nonagricultural payroll jobs (not seasonally adjusted), from February 2018 to February 2019 which was a 2.2 percent increase. The jobs were created in different industries with the highest job creation occurring in Professional & Business Services (7,400), Education & Health Services (5,500), Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities (5,400), Construction (3,300), Other Services (2,800) and Leisure and Hospitality (2,400). The graphs below show the payroll data since September 2017.

The not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Miami-Dade County was 3.2 in February 2019. Compared to last year February there was a 0.8 percentage point decrease from the unemployment rate at 4.0 percent. Compared to January 2019 there was a 0.7 percentage point increase from the unemployment rate at 3.9 percent. Below the graph compares the unemployment rate for Miami-Dade County with that of the United States since September 2017. It shows that Miami-Dade County was tracking the unemployment rate of the United States at a slightly higher rate until November 2018. For the last three months The United States had a higher unemployment rate than Miami-Dade County.

In February 2019, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Miami-Dade County (taking seasonal fluctuations in the labor force into consideration) was 3.6 percent, which was a 0.4 percentage point lower than in February 2018.

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.