March brought a welcome shift in Florida's labor market story. The state added 28,100 nonfarm payroll jobs over the month, making Florida one of only three states in the country to record a statistically significant employment increase. Texas and Tennessee were the other two. That kind of company is worth noting: Florida's job creation engine showed real momentum in March, and it stands out at a time when most states were holding flat.
The unemployment rate came in at 4.7%, which is 1.1 points above March 2025 and reflects the broader labor force expansion Florida has experienced over the past year. More people are in the workforce and actively looking for work, which naturally puts some upward pressure on the unemployment rate even as hiring picks up. The national rate in March was 4.3%, and Florida is running modestly above that, consistent with the state's faster population and labor force growth relative to the rest of the country.
The most important number this month is the payroll gain. At 28,100 new jobs in a single month, Florida is demonstrating that underlying demand for labor remains real across the state. Education and Health Services continues to lead year-over-year growth, and the March bounce in overall payrolls is a positive signal heading into spring. The sector breakdowns below show where the hiring activity is concentrated and what it means for Sales, IT, Operations, and Hospitality professionals.
Professional and Business Services posted a modest improvement in March, edging back up toward 1,603,000 after the slight February dip. The sector remains flat on a year-over-year basis, which after months of gradual decline is actually a stabilizing signal. The trajectory on the chart shows the worst of the pullback happened in the October through December window, and the sector has been recovering ground slowly but steadily since.
For sales hiring, March brought slightly more activity than the prior two months. The national JOLTS data confirmed that hires in professional and business services increased meaningfully in March, with 165,000 more hires than February across the country. That national hiring uptick is consistent with what Veritus Talent is seeing in Florida: more job orders opening up in B2B sales, account management, and revenue operations roles, particularly in the technology, healthcare, and logistics verticals. Employers are still selective, but the pipeline is moving faster than it was in the January and February slowdown.
The Information sector held essentially flat in March at approximately 150,500 jobs, continuing the plateau that has formed since the sharp October contraction. The chart tells the story clearly: the sector dropped from the 157,000 to 159,000 range in the first three quarters of 2025 to the low 150,000s by fall, and has been stable at that lower level ever since. That stability, while not a recovery, is a meaningful improvement over the months of consecutive declines.
Nationally, BLS confirmed that Information employment continued to trend down in the first quarter of 2026, with the sector now down more than 11% from its November 2022 peak. In Florida, the contraction has been concentrated in telecommunications, media, and data processing. The part of the IT labor market that remains active is the skills-driven segment: cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, AI implementation, and data engineering roles continue to see genuine employer demand across the Tampa Bay, Miami, and Orlando markets. Companies hiring for these roles are moving at a normal pace, while broader IT headcount has stabilized at the new lower baseline.
Trade, Transportation, and Utilities bounced back in March to approximately 2,010,000 jobs, recovering the ground lost in February and returning to a level consistent with the January reading. The December trough now looks more like a seasonal dip than the start of a sustained decline, which is an encouraging read on the sector's underlying resilience. Nationally, BLS confirmed that transportation and warehousing was one of the drivers of job gains in March, adding to the positive Florida picture.
Florida's logistics and port infrastructure is showing signs of renewed activity heading into spring. Port volumes, particularly at Miami and Jacksonville, tend to pick up in the March through May window, which generates incremental hiring demand for operations leadership, logistics coordinators, and supply chain management roles. Employers in this space are more willing to make permanent placements at the manager and director level when they can see a clear demand trend ahead of them. Companies with multi-site operations across the I-4 corridor and South Florida are the most active in this space right now.
Hospitality was the standout sector in March, with Leisure and Hospitality employment jumping to approximately 1,335,000, the highest reading in the trailing twelve months and a meaningful break above the flat range the sector occupied for most of 2025. Spring break and peak Florida travel season are typically a catalyst for March hiring, and this year that seasonal lift appears to be delivering real payroll gains. The chart shows the March spike clearly against the flat baseline of the prior eleven months.
This is an encouraging sign for Florida's hospitality industry. The sector spent most of 2025 in a period of normalization after the post-pandemic surge, but March's numbers suggest there is underlying demand that can push employment higher when travel volumes align. Orlando's theme park and convention calendar and Tampa Bay's events and sports infrastructure are both running strong this spring. For hospitality hiring, this is the right window to move on open roles in food and beverage leadership, hotel operations, and property management. Operators who waited out the winter softness are now competing for a smaller pool of available senior talent than they might expect.