Drew Wilson
Florida added 18,100 private sector jobs last month according to new employment data released by payroll company ADP.
July’s ADP Regional Employment Report showed the most of the new jobs heading to the service industry, which saw a gain of 16,500 jobs, including 2,300 new positions in the trade, transportation and utilities sector and 5,300 in the professional and business services industry.
The massive service industry gains were coupled with modest job growth in manufacturing, which added 700 jobs last month, as well as mining and construction jobs, which produced 1,000 new jobs.
The July report showed more new positions than June, when Florida added 13,500 jobs, and are a slight improvement over July 2016, when Florida businesses added 16,400 jobs.
The Sunshine State’s total was good enough for second place among the individual states tracked in the report. Texas took the top spot with a gain of 22,200 new private-sector jobs, with fellow large states California and New York coming in at 14,700 jobs and 6,000 jobs, respectively.
Illinois typically lags behind the four most populous states in job growth, but managed to take the No. 4 spot with 6,800 new jobs added last month.
The South, which includes Florida, Texas and 14 other states, was once again the top region in the report with 84,000 new positions. Western states added 38,000, followed by the Midwest with 36,000 and the Northeast with 19,000.
The Regional Employment Report is produced by ADP and Moody’s Analytics and is based on data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as well as ADP’s in-house payroll data. The next report is scheduled for release Sept. 7.
