Jacksonville job growth flatlines as workforce quietly shrinks.
0.1%
Metro net job growth (12-mo)
500 jobs added vs Florida's 0.6% statewide pace
4.9%
Duval County unemployment
Up from 4.2% a year ago; state is 4.5%
-1.1%
Resident employment change
8,848 fewer employed residents, year-over-year
$15.00/hr
Florida minimum wage (effective 9/30)
Up from $14.00; tipped wage to $11.98
This Month's Takeaways
01
Jacksonville's job growth has effectively stalled, not collapsed.
Net nonfarm job additions of just 500 over twelve months (0.1% growth) sit well below the statewide 0.6% pace, suggesting the metro is plateauing rather than contracting outright. That distinction matters for how press and officials characterize local momentum this fall.
02
Resident labor force shrinkage is the quieter story.
Resident employment fell 1.1% (down 8,848 people) through June even as unemployment ticked down slightly — a pattern consistent with people leaving the labor force rather than a strengthening job market. Falling participation alongside flat job creation complicates a simple 'unemployment is improving' narrative.
03
Government and finance are the metro's soft spots, not its story.
Government shed 2,400 jobs and financial activities lost 4,000 over the year, echoing the national trend of white-collar and public-sector softness. Education and health services (+4.8%) more than offsets this, underscoring how sector mix — not headline unemployment — now drives the local reading.
04
Minimum wage increase lands amid a cooling, not overheating, market.
Florida's minimum wage rises to $15.00 (then $16.00 after the 2026 adjustment) effective September 30, arriving as metro job growth has nearly flatlined. The timing means the wage floor is rising into a labor market with less hiring pressure than a year ago, worth watching for its effect on lower-wage retail and food-service pay dynamics already showing isolated softness.
Local Economic Conditions
Jacksonville's unemployment rate eased slightly to 4.9% in Duval County in August, but the metro has added just 500 net jobs over the prior twelve months — effectively flat growth that marks a sharp deceleration from the pace seen a year ago. Education and health services (+4.8%) and professional and business services (+2.0%) are carrying the local economy while financial activities (-4,000 jobs) and government (-2,400 jobs) contract, a divergence that mirrors the national split between hands-on service growth and white-collar retrenchment.
Open Threads in the Data
Flat net job creation alongside a shrinking resident labor force (-1.1% year-over-year) points to a local economy that is neither expanding capacity nor losing it wholesale — a plateau rather than a downturn, which has different implications for commercial investment timing than an active contraction would. Government payroll losses and financial-sector softness suggest public-sector stability should not be assumed uniformly across the metro's six-county footprint, even as healthcare and business services continue to anchor momentum. Commerce leaders evaluating expansion or site-location decisions should consider weighting sector-specific trajectories — healthcare and professional services versus government and finance — rather than relying on a single metro-wide hiring signal.
Advertised Pay Indicators · WageScape Benchmark 25 Jobs
Job postings data for the Jacksonville, FL MSA metro — median advertised pay, its recent trend, and the number of active postings behind each figure. Jobs are grouped for readability and are not the same as the 10 sector classifications on the next page. For additional job detail contact WageScape.
Retail Trade
| Retail Sales Associate |
$32,240 |
→ Stable |
5,205 |
| Retail Cashier |
$30,160 |
→ Stable |
2,751 |
Transportation & Warehousing
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate |
$35,653 |
→ Stable |
1,425 |
| CDL Truck Driver |
$75,400 |
→ Stable |
6,399 |
| Delivery Driver |
$33,020 |
↓ Moderate decline |
3,759 |
| Warehouse Manager |
— |
Limited local postings |
— |
Construction
| Construction Laborer |
$38,586 |
↑ Moderate increase |
253 |
Construction/Skilled Trades
| Electrician |
$63,177 |
→ Stable |
1,240 |
| HVAC Technician |
$67,600 |
↑ Moderate increase |
269 |
Manufacturing
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler |
$37,440 |
→ Stable |
646 |
Cross-Sector
| Customer Service Representative |
$39,029 |
↑ Moderate increase |
1,878 |
| Operations Manager |
$58,611 |
↓ Significant decline |
11 |
Leisure & Hospitality
| Food Service Worker |
$30,963 |
→ Stable |
238 |
Healthcare
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide |
$36,321 |
→ Stable |
4,999 |
| Registered Nurse |
$87,056 |
↑ Significant increase |
8,398 |
Admin/Office Support
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk |
$41,572 |
↑ Moderate increase |
1,628 |
Information/Technology
| Software Engineer |
$135,487 |
↑ Moderate increase |
707 |
| Data Engineer |
$130,962 |
→ Stable |
395 |
Professional & Business Services
| Accountant |
$68,750 |
↑ Moderate increase |
1,163 |
| HR Generalist/Manager |
$65,725 |
→ Stable |
206 |
| Marketing Specialist |
$67,773 |
↑ Significant increase |
169 |
| Business Analyst |
$95,732 |
→ Stable |
461 |
Finance & Insurance
| Financial Analyst |
$90,000 |
→ Stable |
331 |
Government/Education
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher |
$50,000 |
↑ Significant increase |
5,677 |
Cross-Sector Sales
| Account Manager |
$87,500 |
↑ Moderate increase |
1,351 |
Industry Snapshot · Jacksonville, FL MSA
Advertised pay and job-posting trends across the whole metro economy, rolled up by employer industry — not just the bellwether roles above.
| Sector |
Median Pay Change |
Job Postings Change |
| Construction |
↓ −5.7% |
→ +2.6% |
| Manufacturing |
↑ +10.3% |
↑ +29.2% |
| Retail Trade |
↑ +6.1% |
↓ −3.3% |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities |
↑ +18.3% |
↑ +35.6% |
| Information |
↑ +14.8% |
↓ −6.6% |
| Financial Activities |
↑ +12.6% |
↑ +35.0% |
| Professional & Business Services |
↑ +24.6% |
↑ +55.6% |
| Education & Health Services |
↑ +21.5% |
↓ −8.4% |
| Leisure & Hospitality |
→ −2.6% |
↑ +7.8% |
| Government |
↑ +26.1% |
↓ −19.2% |
Looking Ahead · Next 30–60 Days
Early indicator
Watch whether Duval County's modest unemployment improvement (4.9% in August, down from July) persists into fall reporting or reflects seasonal noise, given the metro's weak underlying job growth.
Potential inflection point
Florida's minimum wage step-up to $15.00 on September 30, with tipped wages to $11.98, is a concrete test of whether lower-wage sectors absorb the increase without hiring slowdowns in retail and food service locally.
Emerging pressure point
Government and financial-sector job losses locally track a national pattern; any additional WARN notices in Northeast Florida tied to these sectors would confirm this is structural rather than a one-time adjustment.
Worth watching
Resident labor force decline (-8,848 year-over-year) deserves monitoring alongside participation data — a shrinking workforce base, even with low unemployment, constrains the pool available to support metro growth ambitions.
Sources & Methodology
Pay and hiring data provided by WageScape. See every source cited in this report, with links →
Advertised pay reflects the pay ranges employers publish in active job postings in this metro, not survey or payroll data. Pay trends compare the current period with the prior period for the same metro and role. Sector figures group postings by the employer's industry classification; sectors with limited classified postings are marked as such rather than estimated. This briefing is independent of, and complements, official statistics from the BLS and state labor market information offices.
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