West Palm Beach drives job growth in Florida, outperforming national unemployment rate

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — FloridaCommerce released its findings employment data on Friday, highlighting West Palm Beach's impressive performance.

West Palm Beach saw the fastest year-over-year job growth rate in the government sector compared to all other state metropolitan areas like Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa.

The city also added 6,100 new jobs in February, for a 1% increase, according to FloridaCommerce. The unemployment rate bumped up to 3.3% in February 2024, from 2.7% the year before.

Education and health care added the most new jobs in West Palm Beach — 5,700 — over the last year, the release states.

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Florida’s statewide unemployment rate has been lower than the national rate for 40 consecutive months — three years and four months. Florida's unemployment rate was 3.1%, 0.8 less than the national average.

“Florida continues to outperform the nation,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “We have proven that bold, conservative leadership across the board produces booming economic results—more jobs, lower taxes, less regulation, and fiscal security.”

FloridaCommerce also stated the state's private sector job growth rate increased by 2.3% —194,200 jobs — in the past year. This is faster than the national rate of 1.6% over the same period.

Florida’s workforce as the state’s labor force grew by 2% — 217,000 jobs — which is faster than the national over-the-year rate of 0.7%.

Jobs added from February 2023 to February 2024 in Florida:

• Education/Health Services - 57,500
• Trade/Transportation/Utilities - 48,300
• Leisure/Hospitality - 35,000