Employment by Industry

Employment by Industry

Last Updated: January 24th, 2025

Summary

  • The seasonally-adjusted number of jobs in the Southwest Florida coastal counties totaled 544,300 jobs in December 2024, up 2 percent (8,100 jobs) from December 2023.
  • Industries in the Southwest Florida coastal counties gaining the most new jobs from December 2023 to December 2024 include Government (up 2,200 jobs), Mining, Logging and Construction (up 2,100 jobs) and Leisure and Hospitality (up 1,900 jobs).
  • Cape Coral-Fort Myers MSA reported 312,700 seasonally-adjusted jobs in December 2024, up 2 percent (6,100 jobs) from the same month last year.
  • The total number of seasonally-adjusted jobs in the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island MSA was 174,500 in December 2024, up 1 percent (1,000 jobs) from December 2023.
  •  The Punta Gorda MSA had 56,800 seasonally-adjusted jobs in December 2024, up 1 percent (800 jobs) from December 2023.

About the Data

The chart above provides employment data collected from the Current Employment Statistics (CES), a monthly survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CES, sometimes referred to as the "establishment survey", interviews over 100,000 businesses and government agencies each month and provides estimates on employment, hours and earnings at the industry level. The total number of jobs is seasonally-adjusted by the Regional Economic Research Institute. All other industry level data is not seasonally-adjusted.

Unlike the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), employment data in the CES represents the number of jobs rather than the number of workers.  Therefore, a person working for two different establishments would be counted twice (unlike the LAUS where they'll be counted once). Furthermore, employment in the CES represents the total number of workers on establishment payrolls that received pay for the pay period including the 12th of the month. This includes part-time, full-time and temporary employees, as well as employees on paid leave. All data is not seasonally-adjusted, and is updated on a monthly basis.