Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry faces re-election in six months, and if August job numbers mean anything, the well-capitalized Republican incumbent should breeze through.
The Jacksonville MSA’s unemployment rate sits at 3.5 percent, down from 4.2 percent a year ago.
And that’s way down from near-term historical heights of over 11 percent in 2010.
When Curry came into office in July 2015, the unemployment rate sat at 6.4 percent. The region has added 20,900 jobs over the last year, with leisure/hospitality and professional services leading the growth sectors.
Over the last year, the only sector to show decline is wholesale trade, which shed 800 workers since Aug. 2017.