Unemployment drops in Tampa-St. Pete
August 16, 2019 - The unemployment rate in July in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area was 3.4 percent, down 0.3 percentage point from one year ago, and down 0.1 percentage point from June. The area added 31,200 new private-sector jobs in the last year, a news release from Gov. Ron DeSantis' office said. The industries with the highest growth over the year in the area were education and health services with 7,300 new jobs and professional and business services with 6,700 new jobs. There were 57,835 job openings in the area in July, making the Tampa area first among the state metro areas in job demand.