Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

NEWS RELEASE

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announces the Orlando area January 2022 employment data

Orlando, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the Orlando area gained the highest number of private sector jobs among all metro areas in January 2022 and also had the fastest private sector over-the-year job growth rate. Orlando added 110,100 new private sector jobs, increasing by 10.1% over the year. In January 2022, Orlando’s unemployment rate was 3.8%, down from 7.1% reported in January 2021.

The Orlando area labor force in January 2022, grew by 88,015 over the year, a 6.9% increase. The industries gaining the most jobs over the year were leisure and hospitality, increasing by 55,400 jobs; professional and business services, increasing by 20,300 jobs; and trade, transportation, and utilities, increasing by 16,700 jobs. In January 2022, the Orlando metro area led all metro areas throughout the state in job gains over the year in leisure and hospitality; trade, transportation, and utilities; financial activities; and information.

In total, Florida has gained 124,700 private sector jobs since February 2020, reaching 101.6% of the pre-pandemic employment level. Florida continues to see significant increases in labor force, growing by 318,000 over the year, as Floridians remain confident in returning to the labor force. Florida’s unemployment rate is 3.5%, decreasing by 2.5 percentage points over the year.

View the statewide January 2022 employment data.