Florida’s jobless rate dips for second consecutive month

Florida’s unemployment rate ticked down for a second consecutive month after a year of slow growth in the figure.

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With job increases over the past year in health care, hospitality, manufacturing and construction, a report from the Department of Commerce released Friday showed the jobless rate was 4.6% in July, a drop of 0.1% from the previous month, but higher than the 3.9% from July 2025.

There are an estimated 515,000 Floridians qualified as out-of-work from a labor force of 11.1 million.

The private sector, which accounts for around 8.9 million jobs in the state, added an estimated 6,800 workers over the month and is up 54,100 or 0.6% over the past year.

The state numbers come on the heels of the federal July jobs report, released Aug. 7 by the U. S. Department of Labor, which showed wage growth trailing inflation and an economy that shed 23,000 jobs in the past month as labor force participation continues to fall amid weak demand for workers.

The national unemployment rate for July is 4.1%, down from 4.2% in June and 4.3% in July 2025.

Last week, a panel of state economists noted in their outlook on state revenue there has been little change in state and national economic forecasts from December to July, which featured “continued deceleration in construction and real estate as well as slowing in tourism growth.”

On Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed to past insurance reform efforts by the state and Amendment 3 on the November ballot — which asks voters to expand the non-school homestead property tax — as state efforts to assist people in the economic “crunch” that’s “been going on for a number of years.”

“How do you give people relief so that they have some breathing room?” DeSantis said while in Holmes County. “And the best way to do that is with the property tax, so that people have the ability to have more money in their pocket.”

The measure would increase the $50,000 property tax exemption for homestead properties to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028, but the portion of the property bill that goes to K-12 public schools would be exempt from the exemption.

Another provision lowers the cap on annual assessments increases for non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%.

Read more Florida’s jobless rate dips for second consecutive month

Job gains over the past year continue to involve the education and health services sectors, which account for around 1.6 million workers. The bulk of the increase comes from the need for workers in health care and social assistance, which accounted for 30,600 of the estimated 35,800 new jobs in that category.

The category of leisure and hospitality, with around 1.34 million workers, added 13,400 over the past year.

Construction, with an estimated 655,700 workers in Florida, grew by 2,700 over the last 12 months.

Financial activities, which covers areas from finance and insurance to real estate, shed 13,600 jobs over the year, about 2% of the estimated 677,100 people working in those areas.

South Florida continues to have the lowest unemployment rate, with the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area at 3.7%, down from 3.9% in June.

Metro area rates are not seasonally adjusted, while the statewide mark was adjusted.

The Panama City region was at 4.6%, Orlando at 4.7%, and the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area at 4.8%.

The Jacksonville and Melbourne areas were both at 4.9%, with the Sarasota and Naples areas at 5%.

Pensacola and Tallahassee were both at 5.1% and Daytona Beach was at 5.4%.

The Wildwood region, including The Villages, has the highest unemployment rate at 7.9%, followed by Homosassa Springs at 6.8% and Sebring at 6.8%.

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The Lakeland and Ocala areas were at 5.8%, with Gainesville at 5.7%.

This story was originally published August 21, 2026 at 12:10 PM.