Miami unemployment rate rises third consecutive month, hits 2.9%

Written by Miami Today on May 13, 2026

Miami’s unemployment rate rose for the third consecutive month in March and Florida’s jobless rate ticked up for a seventh consecutive month.

Miami-Dade recorded 2.9% unemployment, up from 2.8% in February, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment was 2.4% in December. In March 2025 the level was 2.7%.

In March of this year Miami-Dade’s workforce increased by 5,000 people from February, but the number employed rose only 2,300 as the total unemployed increased by 2,600 to 42,700.

Most categories of employment in Miami-Dade actually show decreased numbers of people on the job in the past 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show. Only health and education, with a 2.1% gain in jobs year over year, and professional and business services, up 2.4%, showed any gains.

The biggest percentage losers in employment were financial activities and manufacturing, each of which lost 3.3% of their workers over the 12 months.

Florida’s unemployment rate for March was 4.7%, reflecting 523,000 people qualified as out-of-work from a labor force of 11.15 million. That’s above the national level of 4.3%. There was a monthly increase of 7,000 unemployed workers, and a jump of 120,000 over the last 12 months.

Florida also shed 22,400 jobs over the year, with only the education and health services and professional and business services sectors growing jobs.

Among the state’s metropolitan regions, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area maintained the lowest unemployment rate at 3.7%, down from 3.8% in February. A year ago, South Florida had a 3% jobless rate.

State economists have pointed to new entrants to the job market needing more time to find work, as opposed to people losing their jobs as one of the culprits behind the rise in the jobless rate. They have also attributed a lack of growth in the labor force to an increase in people retiring.

Through the first four months of 2026, Florida received 105 layoff notifications involving 6,011 positions. In the same period of 2025, there were 87 notifications involving 9,038 workers.

In the state’s monthly jobs report, the biggest decline over the past year involved government jobs, with a loss of 12,300 federal posts and 1,600 state jobs. Local governments added 1,800 workers in the past year.

The state also lost 11,500 jobs involving financial activities; 8,700 construction jobs; 7,900 involving trade, transportation, and utilities; and 4,500 in manufacturing.