Labor Force and Employment

Airport Passenger Activity Tourist Tax Revenues Taxable Sales Labor Force and Employment Employment by Industry Single-Family Building Permits Existing Single-Family Home Sales Residential Active Listings Consumer Sentiment Index Consumer Price Index SWFL Stock Index Housing Affordability Index

Labor Force and Employment

Last Updated: September 20th, 2024

Summary

• The region’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 3.3 percent in August 2024, down 0.1 percentage points from the prior month but up 0.2 percentage points over August 2023.
• Lee County’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 3.4 percent in August 2024, a 0.1 percentage point decrease from the previous month but 0.2 percentage points over the same month last year.
• The unemployment rate in Collier County was 3.2 percent in August 2024, declining 0.1 percentage points from July 2024 but 0.2 percentage points above August 2023.
• Charlotte County’s unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in August 2024, down 0.1 percentage points from the prior month and a 0.4 percentage point increase from August 2023.
• Hendry’s unemployment rate was 5.0 percent in August 2024, down 0.1 percentage points from last month and unchanged from the same month last year.
• Glades County had an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent in August 2024, 0.1 percentage points below the previous month but 0.2 percentage points over August 2023.

About the Data

The charts above show total persons age 16 and over that were employed and unemployed in each county. The data comes from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics and is provided by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (FDEO). The FDEO provides the following definitions regarding employment and unemployment:

• A person is considered employed if they did any work as paid employees, worked in their own business or farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in a family business during the reference week (normally the week including the 12th of the month). It also includes those who had a job but did not work due to a temporary absence. Each employed person is counted only once, even if they had more than one job.
• A person is considered unemployed if they did not have a job during the reference week, were available for work, and made specific efforts to find a job sometime during the 4 weeks prior to the reference week. 

The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed in a given month, while the unemployment rate is the percent of the labor force that was unemployed. All data is seasonally-adjusted by the Regional Economic Research Institute using the X13-ARIMA-SEATS seasonal adjustment program, software that is produced, distributed and maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau. All data is updated on a monthly basis.