‘Scary low’ Miami-Dade jobless rate rises a hair

Miami-Dade’s unemployment inched up to 1.6% last month, ultra-low in a historical perspective but higher than the 1.4% in January. Still, it’s by far the lowest in Florida, whose unemployment held fast at 3.1% for the third consecutive month. The national rate was 3.9%.

Miami-Dade’s low unemployment is cited as a reason many employers scramble to fill open jobs.

The day before the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released the new figures, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Summit of 1.4% employment “that’s scary low, because we’re all struggling to find folks,” with the county offering signing bonuses to fill positions like bus drivers and corrections employees.

Mike Skordeles, head of US economics at Truist Advisory Services, told the business audience that in assessing Miami’s economy “It’s all about the jobs.”

The tight Miami-Dade labor market met a slightly larger workforce in February, up 6,100 people from January to exceed 1.4 million. Employment also grew, but only by 2,500 to 1,379,700 working in the county as the tally of the unemployed rose by 3,600 to 22,800. In 12 months, the total county nonfarm workforce grew 2.8%.

The largest 12-month percentage gain in county jobs was 7.4% for leisure and hospitality, which saw the most people working in the industry’s history here at 156,000 after the sector was torn apart in a pandemic that saw most hospitality sites close.

In fact, Miami-Dade gained jobs over the past 12 months in every sector except information, which lost 1.7% of its jobs to 23,600 workers in a continued decline.

Construction had the second-largest year-long percentage gain, up 6.9% to 59,100 jobs. Mr. Skordeles of Truist noted the sector’s gain in amazement after counting 14 construction cranes along I-95 in a drive down from Fort Lauderdale and two more out the window in downtown Miami as he spoke.