In the year since the last Labor Day, the U.S. labor market continued its recovery from the COVID-19 recession; however, starting in March 2022, a new challenge began to confront families. High inflation has started to eat away at wage gains that emerged from the combination of extremely high levels of job openings and low unemployment. Reaching its highest level in 40 years, inflation has made it harder for workers and families to make ends meet.
To address these price pressures, the Federal Reserve began increasing interest rates in March 2022 to bring inflation back to its 2% target. While raising rates may seem counterintuitive to supporting struggling households, doing so to fight inflation is an important move toward economic equity, as it will ultimately help households meet their expenses.
Overall, the job market has proven to be one of the standouts of the recovery from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. It took a little over two years for payrolls to recoup the losses of the pandemic, compared to the six years it took in the recovery from the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. Meanwhile, job openings have fallen from their March peak, and there is concern that unemployment among vulnerable workers will start to rise.
Inflation has reached another historic high, this time the largest 12-month increase since May 1979, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While it’s the largest increase in 43 years, the measure of inflation has gone down since July, dropping 0.2%. Despite the small decrease nationally, Florida’s cities instead saw slight increases, keeping the state expensive compared to other states.
In the U.S., consumer prices rose by 1.3% in the month of June alone, reflecting a leap of 9.1% total from one year ago, as announced in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The prices for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area skyrocketed by a whopping 10.6% in June on a year-over-year basis.
The Fed is also closely monitoring wage growth. Wage gains continue to be outpaced by the rate of inflation, which is still at 40-year highs but slowed slightly in July to 8.5% from 9.1%. The August report showed that the pace of average hourly earnings increased at a slower pace of 0.3% from July. That’s the lowest rate of increase since April, for annual growth of 5.2%.
Around 47% of Floridians rate the condition of the national economy as poor/very poor, while 28% rate it as fair and 25% rate it as good/very good. Around 85% of Floridians consider the cost of living/inflation a high priority for the country to address.
Florida Employment Situation
In August, Florida’s private sector added 24,200 net private payroll jobs and over the past twelve months, it added 439,300 private payroll jobs in the establishment survey. In the household survey, the number of unemployed rose by 9,627 on the net in August, and over the past year, employment rose by 462,492. Florida’s labor force participation rate rose to 59.5 percent in August from 59.3 percent. Since last year, the labor force participation rate rose by 0.8 percentage points.
Florida added 20,700 net payroll jobs, or 0.2 percent, on a seasonally adjusted basis during August. In the prior month, Florida added 67,100 jobs. Over the past twelve months, Florida added 443,600 payroll jobs or 4.9 percent. Florida nonfarm payroll employment had increased in each of the past 12 months.
Nationally, nonfarm payrolls rose by 315,000 in August or rose by 0.2 percent. Over the 12-month period ending with August, nonfarm payrolls rose by 5,840,000 jobs or 4 percent. Florida is tied for 3rd among the 50 states and the District of Columbia for percentage gain in nonfarm payroll employment over the past 12 months.
During August, Florida’s private sector added 24,200 jobs or approximately 0.3 percent. The private sector in Florida added 65,200 jobs in the prior month. Over the past twelve months, private-sector payrolls in Florida added 439,300, or 5.6 percent. Florida private-sector payroll employment has increased in each of the past 12 months.
Nationally, private-sector payroll jobs rose by 308,000 jobs in August, or 0.2 percent. Over the past 12 months, the national payroll rose by 5,702,000 jobs in the private sector or 4.6 percent. Florida ranks 2nd among the 50 states and the District of Columbia for a percentage gain in private-sector payroll employment over the past 12 months.
Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.5 percent in September 2022, down 0.2 percentage points from the August 2022 rate, and down 1.4 percentage points from a year ago. There were 266,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 10,714,000. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.5 percent in September. Florida’s seasonally adjusted total nonagricultural employment was 9,501,800 in September 2022, an increase of 48,800 jobs (+0.5 percent) over the month. The state gained 463,300 jobs over the year, an increase of 5.1 percent. Nationally, the number of jobs rose 3.9 percent over the year. Florida’s total nonagricultural and private sector employment surpassed the February 2020 (pre-pandemic) level in October 2021 and the labor force surpassed the February 2020 level in June 2021.
The industries gaining jobs over the year include;
- Leisure and hospitality (+106,800 jobs, +9.1 percent)
- Trade, transportation, and utilities (+94,000 jobs, +5.1 percent)
- Education and health services (+71,100 jobs, +5.3 percent)
- Professional and business services (+66,300 jobs, +4.5 percent)
- Financial activities (+35,600 jobs, +5.7 percent)
- Manufacturing (+28,500 jobs, +7.3 percent)
- Construction (+24,400 jobs, +4.2 percent)
- Information (+8,000 jobs, +5.6 percent)
- Total government (+1,800 jobs, +0.2 percent.
- Other services (+30,900 jobs, +9.2 percent);
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
- In September 2022, Monroe County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate (1.6 percent), followed by Miami-Dade County (2.0 percent), St. Johns County (2.1 percent), and Okaloosa County and Wakulla County (2.2 percent each).
- Hendry County had the highest unemployment rate (4.8 percent) in Florida in September 2022, followed by Highlands County (4.1 percent), Citrus County (4.0 percent), and Sumter County (3.9 percent).
Area Nonagricultural Employment
- In September 2022, 23 of all 24 metro areas in Florida had over-the-year job gains. The areas with the largest gains were Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall (+80,800 jobs, +6.8 percent), and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (+67,100 jobs, +4.8 percent), and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (+65,800 jobs, +5.0 percent).
- One metro area in Florida experienced an over-the-year job loss: Sebring MSA (-500 jobs, -2.0 percent).
Florida Employment History
Date CES Employment CES Month/Month CPS Employment CPS Month/Month
| September 2022 | 9,501,800 | 48,800 | 10,447,402 | 34,497 |
| August 2022 | 9,453,000 | 26,300 | 10,412,905 | 39,020 |
| July 2022 | 9,426,700 | 67,100 | 10,373,885 | 43,657 |
| June 2022 | 9,359,600 | 45,700 | 10,330,228 | 49,900 |
| May 2022 | 9,313,900 | 26,000 | 10,280,328 | 58,619 |
| April 2022 | 9,287,900 | 53,900 | 10,221,709 | 47,858 |
| March 2022 | 9,234,000 | 12,700 | 10,173,851 | 50,574 |
| February 2022 | 9,221,300 | 44,800 | 10,123,277 | 38,099 |
| January 2022 | 9,176,500 | 38,000 | 10,085,178 | 48,365 |
| December 2021 | 9,138,500 | 3,800 | 10,036,813 | -368 |
| November 2021 | 9,134,700 | 49,600 | 10,037,181 | 7,578 |
| October 2021 | 9,085,100 | 46,600 | 10,029,603 | 35,016 |
Source: Department of Numbers
Florida Job Growth
There were 9,501,800 jobs in Florida in September 2022 according to the CES survey of employers. The CPS survey of households showed 10,447,402 employed persons for the month. Florida added 48,800 jobs in September 2022 according to the CES survey while the broader CPS employment measure rose by 34,497.
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