For an eighth consecutive month Florida’s jobless rate has increased, with job declines in the finance, manufacturing and construction sectors over the past year.
A report released by the Department of Commerce on Friday showed the state’s rate rose to 4.8 percent, up 0.2 percent from March. The number of Floridians employed fell by 5,000 over the past month and by 86,000 since April 2025.
Florida was joined by Connecticut as the only state with an increase in the unemployment rate from March to April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Commerce officials didn’t immediately publicly react to the latest report.
State economists have previously suggested the rise in unemployment isn’t simply about people losing their jobs, but about new entrants to the workforce taking longer to find work, while more people are retiring, leading to a shrinking of the overall labor pool.
The national jobless rate for April stands at 4.3 percent. A year earlier, the U.S. rate was 4.2 percent.
Florida’s jobless rate has steadily grown in monthly releases since last August. The rate stood at 3.7 percent in April 2025.
Overall, there were 532,000 unemployed Floridians last month out of a labor force of 11.15 million.
Some segments of the economy, though, are adding jobs.
In the past year, health care and social assistance positions grew by 29,800, professional and technical services added 14,900 workers, and educational services are up 6,600.
The report showed an uptick of 800 jobs the past year in areas involving leisure and hospitality. Within those fields, 11,000 new jobs attributed to arts and recreational employment were offset by a decline of 10,200 involving hotels and food services.
Lodging and food services did show an increase of 3,800 from March to April.
At the other end, over the past year the state saw a drop of 10,900 in jobs involving financial activities and 8,100 from government positions, mostly at the federal level.
Construction, which saw an increase of 6,000 workers from March to April, is down over the year by 1,300 positions.
Manufacturing, which also saw an uptick in workers from March to April, adding 1,400 people, is down in the past year by 2,400.
Among the state’s metropolitan regions, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area maintains the lowest unemployment rate at 3.9 percent, up from 3.7 percent in March. A year ago, the South Florida region had a 2.9 percent jobless rate.
Metro area rates are not seasonally adjusted, while the statewide mark was adjusted.
Next lowest was the tourism-dominated Orlando region at 4.5 percent, followed by the Naples area at 4.6 percent and the Tampa and Panama City regions both at 4.7 percent. Areas around Jacksonville, Melbourne, Sarasota and Tallahassee were all at 4.8 percent. Pensacola was at 4.9 percent.
The Gainesville and Daytona Beach regions were at 5.3 percent and Lakeland was at 5.6 percent.
The highest rates continue to be for The Villages at 7.9 percent, Homosassa Springs at 6.6 percent and Sebring at 6.4 percent.
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This article appears in May 21 – 27, 2026.
