Miami-Dade Unemployment Rates Continue a Downward Trend in August 2018 Report
Miami-Dade County continues to be a good news story. The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Miami-Dade County was down to 4.1% in August 2018, 0.2% lower than last month. Year-over-year there was a 1.0% decrease, as the unemployment rate for August 2017 was 5.1%.
Additionally, we have seen a solid uptick in the creation of new jobs in the County. In August 2018, Miami-Dade County was in the top 3 metro areas in Florida in over-the-year job gains (right behind Orlando and Tampa). The County created 22,100 new non-agricultural payroll jobs (not seasonally adjusted), from August 2017 to August 2018, a 1.9% increase.
“Some of these increases in new jobs can be linked back to the start of the 2018-2019 school year, which brings back all the teachers who were on summer hiatus. This unusual spike occurs every year,” said Miami-Dade Beacon County President & CEO Michael Finney. “Our goal is to realize sustained growth in new jobs by following our long-term strategy of consistently focusing on high-paying target industries.”
The graphs below show the payroll data since November 2017.
Jobs were created in a variety of industries, with the highest job creation occurring in Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities (8,100), Manufacturing (6,900), Construction (6,600), and Education & Health Services (5,700). Between July 2018 and August 2018, Total Government added 11,100 new jobs. A segment of the increase in government jobs is due to teachers returning to their classrooms.
| Sector | August 2017 – August 2018 | July 2018 – August 2018 |
| Transportation, Warehousing, & Utilities | +8,100 (+11.3%) | +400 (+0.5%) |
| Manufacturing | +6,900 (+16.5%) | -200 (-0.4%) |
| Construction | +6,600 (+14.0%) | -500 (-0.9%) |
| Education & Health Services | +5,700 (+3.1%) | +1,400 (+0.8%) |
| Other Services | +400 (+0.8%) | +1,000 (+2.0%) |
| Financial Activities | 0 (0%) | -300 (-0.4%) |
| Information | -100 (-0.5%) | +200 (+1.1%) |
| Leisure and Hospitality | -600 (-0.4%) | +100 (+0.1%) |
| Wholesale Trade | -900 (-1.2%) | -100 (-0.1%) |
| Professional & Business Service | -900 (-0.5%) | -600 (-0.4%) |
| Total Government | -1,000 (-0.7%) | 11,100 (+8.5%) |
| Retail Trade | -2,200 (-1.5%) | -400 (-0.3%) |
The graph below compares the unemployment rate for Miami-Dade County with that of the United States since November 2016. It shows that Miami-Dade County tracks the unemployment rate of the United States, but at a slightly higher rate.
In August 2018, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Miami-Dade County (taking seasonal fluctuations in the labor force into consideration) was 4.2 percent, which was an 0.5 percentage point lower than in August 2017.
| August 2018 Unemployment Rate (Not Seasonally Adjusted) | August 2017 to August 2018 Unemployment Rate Change (not seasonally adjusted) | |
| Miami-Dade County | 4.1% | -1.0% |
| Palm Beach County | 3.9% | -0.5% |
| Broward County | 3.5% | -0.5% |
| Florida | 3.8% | -0.5% |
| United States | 3.9% | -0.6% |
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.
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* The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unavailable at the time this report was composed.
