(The Center Square) – Florida’s June unemployment rate was 3.7%, the same as the past two months, but the state’s labor force participation rate ticked down slightly.
That’s below the national rate of 4.2%, but more than it was during the same period last year. In June 2024, it was 3.4%.
Out of a labor force of nearly 11.2 million Floridians, there were 415,000 without a job. The state lost 20,000 jobs, a decrease of 0.2%, in June, but has gained 142,000 jobs for the year so far.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate was at 57.8%, down from a 10-year high in October 2019 when it was at 59.9%. In June 2024, the Sunshine State’s labor force participation rate was 58.6%.
The national labor force participation rate was 62.3% in June.
The seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate is defined as the percentage of those either working or seeking work.
All 25 metropolitan areas in Florida had job gains over the year, with Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford adding 31,600 jobs, a gain of 2.1% as the leader. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall had a job gain of 20,300 for 1.5%, while Tampa added 14,700 new workers (1.4%).
The Panama City-Panama City Beach area lost 900 jobs in June, a 1% loss, while nearby the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin metro shrunk by 800 jobs, a decrease of 0.6%.
In June 2025, Miami-Dade County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 2.4 %, followed by Monroe County (2.7%) and Wakulla County (3.4%).
Sumter County had the highest unemployment rate (6.9%), followed by Taylor County (6.8%) and Citrus County (5.8%).
The Office of Economic and Demographic Research are less bullish than they were in February on the national economy. The office predicted a gross domestic product of $24,009 trillion for the fourth quarter of this year earlier and have revised that forecast down to $23,765 trillion.
State officials revised down their GDP predictions through the second quarter of 2028, as far as the short-term prediction goes, by about 1.83%.
