From December 2024 to March 2025, private-sector establishments in Florida saw gross job gains of 510,563 and gross job losses of 480,933, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This resulted in a net employment gain of 29,630 jobs for the state during the first quarter of 2025. Victoria G. Lee, Regional Commissioner for BLS, stated that “the difference between the number of gross job gains and the number of gross job losses yielded a net employment gain of 29,630 jobs in the private sector during the first quarter of 2025.” In contrast, the previous quarter had seen more job losses than gains by a margin of 19,111.
Business Employment Dynamics (BED) statistics monitor changes in employment at private businesses from one quarter to another. The BED data show that gross job gains represented 5.8 percent of Florida’s private-sector employment in this period; nationally, this figure was slightly lower at 5.6 percent. Gross job gains include increases due to expansions at existing establishments and new jobs from opening businesses.
In Florida’s first quarter results for 2025, expanding establishments contributed 379,055 jobs—an increase compared to the prior quarter—while opening establishments added another 131,508 jobs but marked a decrease from earlier figures.
Gross job losses accounted for 5.5 percent of private-sector employment in Florida and stood at 5.4 percent nationally during this period. Contracting establishments were responsible for losing 358,089 jobs—a decrease from last quarter—and closing businesses lost an additional 122,844 jobs.
The data also showed that eight out of eleven major industry sectors experienced more job gains than losses over the period. Education and health services recorded the largest net increase with a gain of 13,539 jobs (71,384 gained versus 57,845 lost). Retail trade followed with a net gain of 8,509 jobs and professional and business services added a net total of 6,965 positions. On the other hand, transportation and warehousing saw a net loss of 7,585 jobs—the largest among all sectors—while leisure and hospitality reported a net loss of 4,339 jobs.
The BED dataset provides details on gross job gains and losses by industry subsector across all states as well as employer size classes. Further information is available through resources such as the Business Employment Dynamics homepage and summary pages on the BLS website.
The next release covering second-quarter data is scheduled for February 26th 2026 at 10:00 a.m., according to BLS announcements.
BED data are produced under a federal-state cooperative program using records from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). Definitions regarding coverage and methodology can be found within the official technical note.
