Region’s jobless rate down to 5.5%

Media Contact: Laura Byrnes, APR, CPRC
Communications Manager
Direct: 352-291-9559 | Mobile: 352-816-1264
[email protected]

OCALA, Fla. (May 20, 2016) – The unemployment rate in the CareerSource Citrus Levy Marion region was 5.5 percent in April, down 0.3 percent ov er the month and 0.8percent lower than the previous year.

The Ocala metropolitan statistical area’s annual job growth rate of 4.0  percent in manufacturing was the fifth fastest growth rate among Florida’s metros.

According to today’s employment report by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), out of a labor force of 193,942, there were 10,733 unemployed, down 538 over the month. Compared to a year ago when the region’s unemployment rate was 6.3 percent, there are 1,650 fewer unemployed; at 183,209  the number of employed was virtually unchanged — up 90 — from April 2015.

Levy County continues to hold the lowest unemployment rate in the region at 4.8 percent, down 0.3 percentage points; followed again by Marion County with 5.3 percent, also down 0.3 percent; and Citrus County at 6.3 percent, a drop of 0.3 percent.
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