Unemployment drops in Manatee, Sarasota and statewide

Manatee and Sarasota counties once again saw a drop in unemployment for April.

Manatee County’s rate went from 4.3 percent to 4.1 percent from March to April, and Sarasota County had a similar drop, from 4.4 percent to 4.3 percent, according to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. That reflects Florida’s trend: The state rate dropped from 4.9 percent to 4.8 percent. Manatee County has had a fairly consistent decrease in unemployment over the past year, save January when the rate jumped back up to 4.8 percent.

County data is not seasonally adjusted, while state rates are seasonally adjusted. Unemployment figures do not include temporary workers or discouraged workers, or those who have stopped seeking employment. Florida’s unemployment rate with discouraged workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was 5.7 percent based on second quarter 2015 through first quarter 2016 averages.

In the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota metropolitan statistical area, the financial activities, manufacturing, retail trade and hospitality industries saw slight drops in employment in the one-month period. Wholesale trade and construction had the largest gains with a 1.2 and 1.0 percent, respectively.

Though hospitality employment decreased by 0.2 percent, local job agency CareerSource Suncoast had at least two companies in the industry seeking employees.

“Normally we would say hospitality slows down in the summer, but we just had Longboat Key Club in last week and they had 34 openings,” said CareerSource Suncoast Business and Economic Development Director Anthony Gagliano. “Now, that will pale in comparison to their needs come August and September, but it’s still a healthy number for this time in the year.” Marriott International posted a significant number of jobs as well.

The agency held hiring events for Rent-A-Center, Fanueil, RGIS and B&I Contractors in April. CareerSource Suncoast also posted a number of jobs in retail sales, through the area’s retail trade industry employment lessened by 0.2 percent.

“Retail sales and RNs remained the occupations with the most job postings in April, when we posted 564 different opportunities,” Gagliano said. “Healthcare and social assistance was the leading industry sector in terms of postings by a wide margin.”

Hendry County had the highest April unemployment rate in Florida at 7.3 percent. Monroe County had the lowest with 3.1 percent.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Unemployment drops in Manatee, Sarasota and statewide."