Unemployment

Job growth slowed overall, but professional and business services added 18,400 jobs over the year.

The rate increased from 2.3% in May to 2.9% in June as college and high school grads sought work.

The rate fell to 2.2% while the average hourly wage in the Jacksonville area rose to $33.22 in April.

Workers are shifting away from jobs at hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues for higher-paying jobs in manufacturing, warehousing and logistics.

The area’s 3.3% unemployment in January is up from 2.6% in December, the lowest rate since at least 1998.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity on Tuesday announced that a formula used to determine the maximum number of weeks of benefits will revert from a pandemic-boosted 19 weeks to 12 weeks.

The area has recovered nearly all of the ground it lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic pushed nearly 1.27 million Floridians out of work between February and April 2020, the state has regained just over 1 million jobs.

With weekly unemployment claims rolling in at pre-pandemic numbers, state leaders say they remain optimistic about seeing results from a summer push to get people back into the labor force.

Florida plans to stop providing $300 a week in additional federal unemployment benefits as it pushes for people to return to work during the COVID-19…