Jacksonville-area unemployment rate falls to 4.5% in September

The unemployment rate in Northeast Florida fell to 4.5% in September, down from 4.8% in August but up from 4.4% a year earlier, according to CareerSource Northeast Florida.The rate across Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns counties was 0.3 percentage points higher than Florida’s 4.2% rate. Putnam County had the region’s highest rate at 5.1%, while Nassau had the lowest at 4.3%.The region’s labor force totaled 879,894, down 0.4% from a year earlier. There were 39,397 unemployed residents.The Jacksonville metropolitan area had 802,800 nonagricultural jobs, an increase of 2,400 over the year. Education and health services added the most jobs, with 4,300, followed by leisure and hospitality, with 1,400, and professional and business services, with 1,300.The most in-demand jobs in the region included retail salespersons, with 1,471 openings; fast-food and counter workers, with 1,062; and registered nurses, with 942.The report’s data are from the Florida Department of Commerce’