Employment is humming along on the Treasure Coast.
The state released its first employment report for 2018 on March 12. St. Lucie started the year with slightly stronger employment than it had the previous year.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported that St. Lucie County’s not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in January was 5.1 percent, down from 5.9 the previous January. Pete Tesch, president of the St. Lucie County Economic Development Council, said St. Lucie has likely found its normal employment picture for now.
“The economy is good,” he said. “Employers in most of the major industry sectors are still hiring. People have disposable incomes. There’s reasonably high (consumer) confidence.”
St. Lucie’s not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate dipped below 5 percent in 2017. That was the first time in about a decade. That was in March last year. The unemployment rate stayed below 5 percent until June; it inched over the 5 percent mark during the summer, which is traditionally a down time for employment on the Treasure Coast. By September the not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was back below 5 percent. It stayed there for the rest of 2017.
Tesch said multiple months with the county’s unemployment rate in the 4 percent range hints to him that the jobs market is stabilized – barring any unforeseen circumstances with economic downturns, as long as the economy is chugging along nationally and globally,” he explained.
The local and state economies got an unwelcomed resiliency test last year – Hurricane Irma. When the storm marched through the Florida Peninsula in early September, many feared it would leave unemployment in its wake. As things turned out, employment in St. Lucie dropped from 5 percent to 4.2 percent not seasonally adjusted from August to September. It held steady at 4.2 percent from September to October.
Tesch said employers and workers alike can benefit from the healthy, stable job market. “People are looking to better themselves and their jobs by finding better job opportunities,” Tesch said.
Additionally, he said employers are increasingly turning toward creating job pipelines from area high schools and colleges.
“Just last week, we had a health expo and career fair for St. Lucie County and Martin County high school students interested in healthcare as a career choice,” Tesch said.
The Economic Development Council, along with others, is hosting an upcoming job fair.
“We’re going to have a manufacturing job fair in Fort Pierce on April 7,” Tesch said. That event will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Percy Peek Gym, 2902 Avenue D. Registration is at www.careersourcerc.com.
Florida’s unemployment rate held steady at 3.9 percent seasonally adjusted from December to January. That was down from 4.6 percent the January before. The national seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in January was 4.1 percent.
The national and state unemployment rates are calculated using a variety of methods. Among them are telephone interviews with workers. Those that are able to work and report not having jobs, but looked for employment in the previous 30 days, are counted as unemployed. Discouraged workers – those who are able to work and want jobs but have not sought employment in the previous 30 days – are not counted in the unemployment figure. Many call this “shadow unemployment,” and it’s inherently difficult to track due to variations for why people don’t seek jobs.
The nation’s labor force participation rate in January was 62.7 percent, unchanged from the previous three months.
