{"id":223487,"date":"2026-04-08T14:58:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/223487\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:58:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:58:06","slug":"tampa-bay-leads-florida-job-growth-as-unemployment-rises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/223487\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay leads Florida job growth as unemployment rises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay<\/a> added more jobs than any other metro area in Florida over the past year, while unemployment increased across the region and statewide, according to the state\u2019s latest labor report.<\/p>\n

The Tampa metropolitan division gained 11,800 jobs over the year, a 1.1% increase, the largest in Florida. The broader Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA added about 14,400 jobs, or 0.9%.<\/p>\n

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro posted a 4.6% unemployment rate in December 2025, up from 3.3% a year earlier. The Tampa division registered 4.7%, while the St. Petersburg-Clearwater-Largo division came in at 4.3%.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 4.3% in December, up from 4.2% in November and 3.4% a year earlier.<\/p>\n

The state had 486,000 unemployed residents out of a labor force of more than 11.2 million.<\/p>\n

READ MORE LOCAL NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida added 40,000 jobs over the year, a 0.4% increase, while total nonagricultural employment declined by 4,200 jobs from November to December.<\/p>\n

Among Florida\u2019s 25 metro areas, Tampa posted the largest annual job gain, followed by West Palm Beach, which added 5,800 jobs, and Jacksonville, which added 5,600.<\/p>\n

Fifteen metro areas gained jobs over the year, while 10 lost jobs.<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County recorded a 4.5% unemployment rate in December, while Pinellas County posted a 4.3% rate. Both are near the statewide rate of 4.4% on a not seasonally adjusted basis.<\/p>\n

Education<\/a> and health services added 51,400 jobs over the year, the largest increase among major sectors. Government added 3,300 jobs, while information and financial<\/a> activities posted smaller gains.<\/p>\n

Construction employment fell by 7,500 jobs, manufacturing declined by 3,000, and leisure and hospitality decreased by 2,500 over the year.<\/p>\n

Stay Informed<\/p>\n

\n Stay up to date on Tampa Bay business<\/a> news<\/a>, executive profiles and the companies shaping the region.\n <\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\t\tPost navigation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay added more jobs than any other metro area in Florida over the past year, while unemployment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[61002,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-223487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-left","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}