Florida added 7,000 jobs last month and raised the private sector's job growth rate to 3.9 percent, Gov. Scott announced Friday in Orlando.

Scott also announced the state's unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 percent, down from 5.7 percent for May, and the lowest level in Florida since March 2008.

The governor made the announcement from ODC Construction, a residential construction services company in Orlando.

He also announced that Wilson Legal Solutions, a Philadelphia-based international provider of business of law software and services, has decided to expand to Orlando, with an office opening near Sand Lake Road.

Orlando is in the top 10 cities for job growth in the country and led the Sunshine State in job creation over the last year, creating 47,000 private-sector jobs from June 2014 to June 2015.

The Tampa Bay area was second in the state, with 32,900 jobs created over the last year.

The state's jobless rate remains higher than the national rate of 5.3 percent. There are approximately 529,000 unemployed Floridians, out of a labor force of nearly 9.6 million people.

June's rate was a 0.6 percentage point drop from a year ago.

Hendry County had the state's highest unemployment rate at 10.3 percent, followed by Hardee County at 7.8 percent.

Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys, had the lowest unemployment rate at 3.6 percent, followed by St. John's County at 4.0 percent.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.


Local unemployment by county

June 2015, Central Florida and Tampa Bay area counties only
(Preliminary, not seasonally adjusted)

RANK* COUNTY JUNE 2015 MAY 2015
4 Citrus 7.6% 7.8%
8 Sumter 7.0% 7.5%
9 Hernando 6.9% 7.1%
15 Marion 6.5% 6.6%
18 Flagler 6.3% 6.6%
22 Polk 6.2% 6.2%
27 Pasco 5.9% 6.1%
27 Brevard 5.9% 6.1%
31 Volusia 5.8% 5.9%
31 Osceola 5.8% 5.8%
40 Lake 5.4% 5.6%
45 Hillsborough 5.2% 5.3%
50 Manatee 5.0% 5.2%
50 Orange 5.0% 5.1%
57 Pinellas 4.9% 5.1%
61 Seminole 4.8% 4.9%

* Out of 67 Florida counties.

Source: Florida Department of Economic Opportunity