Jacksonville’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in more than seven years last month, in part because some people dropped out of the labor force entirely.
The jobless rate for the Jacksonville metropolitan area — consisting of Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties — fell from 5.1 percent in September to 4.8 percent in October, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday.
That’s the first time the unemployment rate has been below 5 percent since April 2008, when the last recession was taking hold.
The state agency does not adjust its data for seasonal factors, but the University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project (LEIP) said when it is seasonally adjusted, it shows the area’s unemployment rate fell from 5.1 percent in September to 4.98 percent last month.
Duval County’s unemployment rate was slightly higher than the rest of the metropolitan area, falling by 0.3 percentage points to 5.2 percent in October, according to the Department of Economic Opportunity. On a seasonally adjusted basis, it fell from 5.71 percent to 5.35 percent, LEIP said.
St. Johns County continued to have one of the state’s lowest unemployment rates at 3.6 percent in October, down 0.2 points. St. Johns and Monroe County, at 3.4 percent, are the only two counties in Florida with unemployment below 4 percent.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell by 0.1 point to 5.1 percent last month, the Department of Economic Opportunity said.
While the drop in the unemployment rate across the board is good news, some of the decline can be attributed to a drop in the labor force.
The size of the labor force — consisting of those people with jobs and those actively looking for work — fell by more than 5,000 in the Jacksonville area last month.
“It’s not a good sign,” said UNF economist Paul Mason.
The labor force participation rate has been falling nationwide, an indication that many people have become discouraged and have stopped looking for work.
The good news for the labor market is holiday season hiring should increase jobs over the next two months.
“I expect a continued downward trend in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate,” Mason said.
In the Jacksonville area, retail businesses have already added a net total of 3,200 jobs from October 2014 through October 2015, a 4.3 percent growth rate, according to the Department of Economic Opportunity’s survey of employer payrolls.
That makes retail the second-fastest growing sector in Northeast Florida behind leisure and hospitality, which gained 4,700 jobs in the 12-month period, a 6.2 percent growth rate.
Total non-farm jobs in the Jacksonville area rose by 12,700 to 641,900, a 2 percent growth rate, the agency said.
The Jacksonville area is lagging behind Florida’s statewide growth rate of 3 percent over the past year.