TALLAHASSEE — Despite retirees continuing to reduce the size of the labor force and a slight bump in the number of Floridians out of work, the state’s unemployment rate held steady in December.

The Florida Department of Commerce on Friday released a report that said the unemployment rate was 3.4 percent in December, unchanged from November. The national unemployment rate in December was 4.1 percent.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area had the state’s lowest unemployment rate in December at 2.8 percent, followed by the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin and Naples areas at 2.9 percent.

Among others, the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Panama City and Jacksonville areas had 3 percent rates in December.

The highest rate was in the Homosassa Springs area at 4.8 percent. The Sebring area was at 4.5 percent and The Villages area was at 4.4 percent.

Jimmy Heckman, the Department of Commerce’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research, attributed the state’s employment picture to its population growth, which has boosted demand for goods and services.

“Those opportunities for new businesses to open up, create jobs for Florida job seekers, really creates that environment for strong job growth in the state,” Heckman said in a conference call with reporters.

The December rate represents an estimated 377,000 Floridians qualifying as out of work from a labor force of 11 million. The labor force decreased by an estimated 6,000 workers from November and was 53,000 lower than in December 2023.

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Meanwhile, the number of people who were unemployed increased by 2,000 from November to December and was 38,000 higher than in December 2023.

The unemployment rate was 3.1 percent in December 2023.

Heckman said retirements remain closely tied to the decrease in the labor force. Employment in manufacturing, for example, decreased by 900 jobs from November to December and by 6,300 jobs from December 2023.

“The manufacturing labor force does skew a little bit older than the rest of Florida’s labor force and other industries,” Heckman said.

But Heckman said manufacturing production increased over the past year.

“We’re seeing an environment where manufacturing employers have, on average, have fewer employees than they used to, but they’re still able to maintain that production,” Heckman said.

Meanwhile, sectors with the most employment growth over the past year were the broad category of education and health services, up 30,900 jobs; leisure and hospitality, up 29,500 jobs; and construction, up 28,900 jobs.

The statewide rate is seasonally adjusted, while the metro rates are not adjusted.