Job Revisions Paint Better Picture for Leon County

The annual revision of job numbers by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that Leon County employment is at 94% of pre-pandemic levels. Before the revision, the BLS job numbers showed Leon County at approximately 90% of pre-pandemic levels.

The latest employment information shows that Leon County added 2,363 jobs in January. One year ago Leon County lost 1,011 jobs. The unemployment rate in January 2021 increased to 4.8% from 3.5% in December 2020. One year ago the January unemployment rate was 3..5%.

The number of people working in January 2020 is less when compared to last year. The Leon County Jobs Report, listed below, indicates that 145,732 people were working in January 2021. This is 5,205 less than the 150,937 people reported working in January 2020.

Also, the labor force decreased when compared to one year ago. The January 2021 workforce was 153,143 compared to 156,481 during January last year.

At the state-level, 19,000 jobs were added in January after a gain of 49,000 jobs in December, 2020. The January unemployment rate increased to 5.3% from the December rate of 4.2%.

The chart below shows the monthly level of jobs in Leon County over the last three years with a 12-month average trend line. After several months of growth following the impact of COVID mitigation policies, Leon County employment has remained approximately 8,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels during the last five months.