Summer slowdown raises unemployment in Palm Beach County but there are still many open jobs

A seasonal increase in the unemployment rate was of minimal concern Friday as Palm Beach County officials touted what they said was an ongoing "worker’s and job seeker’s market.”

The jobless rate for June in the county rose to 3%, up from a historic low of 2.3% in April, as part of a typical summer slowdown. Still, the number of open jobs in Palm Beach County was nearly twice the number of people looking for work – 44,423 posted jobs versus 22,917 unemployed people.

The two-for-one ratio to jobs to available workers came even as the county's non-agricultural workforce topped 656,000 people by adding 31,800 jobs over the past 12 months for a 5.1% increase. 

“Overall, Palm Beach County’s economy and its job market have performed better than the state and nation since the pandemic began in March 2020,” said Julia Dattolo, president and CEO of CareerSource Palm Beach County, in a statement. “While today’s report reflects the expected seasonal slowdown in summer employment, it’s still very much a worker’s and job seeker’s market.”

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Tom Veenstra, vice president of administration at CareerSource Palm Beach County, said the report spoke to what remains a strong job market with significant wage growth –the largest over-the-year average weekly wage gain of 15.6% among the 343 largest counties in the nation.

Despite nationally low consumer sentiment ratings, Veenstra pointed out that local consumer demand is still robust and there has been improvement in supply chain deliveries and downward movement in energy prices.

Still, he said the high costs for food, gasoline and housing are of concern. And he is seeing "employers hiring more part-time, contract and gig workers to save costs."

As for Florida, the state's unemployment rate dropped to 2.8 percent. Florida’s statewide unemployment rate has declined or held steady for 23 consecutive months. Florida’s labor force grew by 40,000 (+0.4 percent) over the month.

The national unemployment rate remains unchanged over the month at 3.6 percent.

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.