Jacksonville’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 11.2% in May, as people returned to work and businesses reopened after shutting for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported June 19.
Nonfarm businesses in the Jacksonville metropolitan area of Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties added 21,200 jobs to their payrolls in May.
However, there were 50,500 fewer jobs than in May 2019, a 7% decline.
By far the biggest job losses have come in the leisure and hospitality sector, which dropped by 25,300 in the past 12 months, down 28.8%.
Businesses in the sector did bring back 14,000 jobs between April and May.
The only major sector to add jobs in the past year is wholesale trade, which increased by 600, or 2.2%.
The Jacksonville area had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state, with only four of Florida’s 23 metropolitan areas recording a lower rate in May.
Gainesville and Tallahassee tied for the lowest rate, at 8.7%, the only two metro areas below 10%.
Duval County’s unemployment rate edged up from 11.5% in April to 11.7% in May.
The Department of Economic Opportunity does not adjust local area jobless data for seasonal factors. May is typically a month when new high school and college graduates begin looking for work, which impacts the employment data.
The agency said Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 13.8% in April to 14.5% in May.