South Florida Regional Economic Report

Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) — Palm Beach, Broward & Miami-Dade Counties

Data as of 2025 Q3

Regional Snapshot

Palm Beach County

Employment
659,535
▼ 0.1% YoY
Establishments
71,755
▲ 3.0% YoY
Average Salary
$76,180
▲ 5.2% YoY
Real GDP
$110.5B
▲ 2.0% YoY
(2024)
Unemployment rate
4.8%
▲ 1.1pp YoY
(Feb 2026)
Net Migration
−1,374
(2022→2023 filings, US + foreign)

Broward County

Employment
854,811
▼ 0.9% YoY
Establishments
82,342
▲ 2.8% YoY
Average Salary
$70,876
▲ 4.3% YoY
Real GDP
$136.6B
▲ 2.5% YoY
(2024)
Unemployment rate
4.6%
▲ 1.1pp YoY
(Feb 2026)
Net Migration
−13,129
(2022→2023 filings, US + foreign)

Miami-Dade County

Employment
1,261,731
▲ 0.4% YoY
Establishments
126,175
▲ 4.5% YoY
Average Salary
$76,336
▲ 5.8% YoY
Real GDP
$203.1B
▲ 3.4% YoY
(2024)
Unemployment rate
2.8%
▲ 0.3pp YoY
(Feb 2026)
Net Migration
−40,258
(2022→2023 filings, US + foreign)

Net Migration reflects IRS SOI county-to-county filings (Total Migration-US and Foreign) — the net change in tax-filer exemptions between consecutive filing years, inclusive of moves into and out of the country. FRED real GDP and unemployment rate vintages reflect the most recent BEA/BLS releases as of the data badge above.

Employment & Salary Trends

Between 2019 and 2025, employment in Palm Beach went from 620,166 to 659,535, an increase of 6.3%. Average annual wages went from $58,240 to $76,180, rising 30.8% over the same period.

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Chart shows the STL trend (raw quarterly values omitted for clarity). Trend computed via STL decomposition (period=4, robust); salary on log scale. Projection extrapolates a linear fit through the last 4 trend points to the current calendar quarter — the horizon shrinks as new QCEW data is published. BLS does not publish seasonally adjusted QCEW — this is a custom estimate.

Workforce Composition

In 2025 Q3, the county's largest private-sector employers are Health Care & Social Assistance (17.3%), Retail Trade (12.9%), and Accommodation & Food Services (11.7%).

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Each rectangle is a 2-digit NAICS sector; size is total private employment in the displayed quarter. Use the buttons below the chart to view earlier years; the narrative reflects the most recent quarter. Colors group sectors into broad industry domains (matching the Industry Landscape chart). Sectors with suppressed BLS data and 'Unclassified' are excluded.

Industry Landscape

Each bubble is a 2-digit NAICS industry in 2025 Q3; size reflects total employment. The horizontal split at 0% salary growth and the vertical split at 0% employment growth define four regions. Both growth rates are year over year. Industries expanding on both fronts (jobs and pay): Health Care & Social Assistance, Accommodation & Food Services, and Professional & Technical Services. Wholesale Trade are losing both jobs and pay growth.

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Growth rates compare each industry's employment and average wage in the latest quarter to the same quarter one year ago, per BLS QCEW.

Firm Openings & Closings

In the most recent quarter (2025 Q3), the county's establishment count expanded by 1,013 firms — the net of 867 added across growing industries and 21 lost across shrinking ones.

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Each blue bar sums the QoQ establishment growth across industries that gained firms; the red bar sums the loss across industries that shed firms. The dark line shows the county's BLS-published private establishment net change (own_code=5, agglvl=71) — it does not equal the sum of the bars because BLS suppresses small-cell industries from the per-sector view. The dashed gold benchmark is U.S. private-sector QoQ growth rescaled to the county's private establishment base — like-for-like with the bars. Trailing quarters with no benchmark mean the national figure hasn't been published yet. Q1 typically shows a large negative pattern across counties due to year-end reporting cycles in QCEW. This is not true gross firm openings and closings — BLS does not publish those at the county level.

Employment & Salary Trends

Between 2019 and 2025, employment in Broward went from 820,616 to 854,811, an increase of 4.2%. Average annual wages went from $56,732 to $70,876, rising 24.9% over the same period.

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Chart shows the STL trend (raw quarterly values omitted for clarity). Trend computed via STL decomposition (period=4, robust); salary on log scale. Projection extrapolates a linear fit through the last 4 trend points to the current calendar quarter — the horizon shrinks as new QCEW data is published. BLS does not publish seasonally adjusted QCEW — this is a custom estimate.

Workforce Composition

In 2025 Q3, the county's largest private-sector employers are Retail Trade (13.8%), Health Care & Social Assistance (12.9%), and Accommodation & Food Services (10.8%).

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Each rectangle is a 2-digit NAICS sector; size is total private employment in the displayed quarter. Use the buttons below the chart to view earlier years; the narrative reflects the most recent quarter. Colors group sectors into broad industry domains (matching the Industry Landscape chart). Sectors with suppressed BLS data and 'Unclassified' are excluded.

Industry Landscape

Each bubble is a 2-digit NAICS industry in 2025 Q3; size reflects total employment. The horizontal split at 0% salary growth and the vertical split at 0% employment growth define four regions. Both growth rates are year over year. Industries expanding on both fronts (jobs and pay): Health Care & Social Assistance, Admin & Waste Services, and Professional & Technical Services.

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Growth rates compare each industry's employment and average wage in the latest quarter to the same quarter one year ago, per BLS QCEW.

Firm Openings & Closings

In the most recent quarter (2025 Q3), the county's establishment count expanded by 1,212 firms — the net of 1,107 added across growing industries and 115 lost across shrinking ones.

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Each blue bar sums the QoQ establishment growth across industries that gained firms; the red bar sums the loss across industries that shed firms. The dark line shows the county's BLS-published private establishment net change (own_code=5, agglvl=71) — it does not equal the sum of the bars because BLS suppresses small-cell industries from the per-sector view. The dashed gold benchmark is U.S. private-sector QoQ growth rescaled to the county's private establishment base — like-for-like with the bars. Trailing quarters with no benchmark mean the national figure hasn't been published yet. Q1 typically shows a large negative pattern across counties due to year-end reporting cycles in QCEW. This is not true gross firm openings and closings — BLS does not publish those at the county level.

Employment & Salary Trends

Between 2019 and 2025, employment in Miami-Dade went from 1,166,977 to 1,261,731, an increase of 8.1%. Average annual wages went from $58,708 to $76,336, rising 30.0% over the same period.

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Chart shows the STL trend (raw quarterly values omitted for clarity). Trend computed via STL decomposition (period=4, robust); salary on log scale. Projection extrapolates a linear fit through the last 4 trend points to the current calendar quarter — the horizon shrinks as new QCEW data is published. BLS does not publish seasonally adjusted QCEW — this is a custom estimate.

Workforce Composition

In 2025 Q3, the county's largest private-sector employers are Health Care & Social Assistance (15.9%), Retail Trade (12.4%), and Accommodation & Food Services (11.4%).

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Each rectangle is a 2-digit NAICS sector; size is total private employment in the displayed quarter. Use the buttons below the chart to view earlier years; the narrative reflects the most recent quarter. Colors group sectors into broad industry domains (matching the Industry Landscape chart). Sectors with suppressed BLS data and 'Unclassified' are excluded.

Industry Landscape

Each bubble is a 2-digit NAICS industry in 2025 Q3; size reflects total employment. The horizontal split at 0% salary growth and the vertical split at 0% employment growth define four regions. Both growth rates are year over year. Industries expanding on both fronts (jobs and pay): Health Care & Social Assistance, Professional & Technical Services, and Transportation & Warehousing. Mining are losing both jobs and pay growth.

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Growth rates compare each industry's employment and average wage in the latest quarter to the same quarter one year ago, per BLS QCEW.

Firm Openings & Closings

In the most recent quarter (2025 Q3), the county's establishment count expanded by 2,176 firms — the net of 1,855 added across growing industries and 15 lost across shrinking ones.

Source: BLS QCEW — Quarterly

Each blue bar sums the QoQ establishment growth across industries that gained firms; the red bar sums the loss across industries that shed firms. The dark line shows the county's BLS-published private establishment net change (own_code=5, agglvl=71) — it does not equal the sum of the bars because BLS suppresses small-cell industries from the per-sector view. The dashed gold benchmark is U.S. private-sector QoQ growth rescaled to the county's private establishment base — like-for-like with the bars. Trailing quarters with no benchmark mean the national figure hasn't been published yet. Q1 typically shows a large negative pattern across counties due to year-end reporting cycles in QCEW. This is not true gross firm openings and closings — BLS does not publish those at the county level.