Drew Wilson
Florida added 20,200 jobs in February according to data released Wednesday by payroll company ADP.
The total bested all but California in the Regional Employment Report and is an improvement of about 2,300 jobs over January numbers and 5,000 jobs over the February 2015 total.
California, which has the largest population among the states, saw a gain of 29,200 jobs last month. Fellow large states Texas and New York followed with 19,300 jobs and 13,400 jobs, respectively.
The breakdown shows 16,500 of the new jobs headed to the service industry, with the remaining 3,700 to goods-producing sectors. Of those, 3,400 went into the mining and construction industry, and 300 went to manufacturing. In the service sector, trade, transportation and utilities saw 4,500 new positions, and professional and business services got 4,400.
The South once again led the rest of the country, with 89,000 jobs added across 17 states, followed by the West with 49,000 jobs. The Midwest added 39,000 jobs in February, with Northeastern states rounding out the regional breakdown at 29,000 jobs.
The ADP Regional Employment Report is produced with help from Moody’s Analytics. The results are based on figures published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as well as ADP’s in-house payroll data. The next report, covering March, is scheduled for April 6.
