New York falls behind Florida in jobs for first time in 40 years

New York employed fewer workers than Florida for the first time in decades as the Great Migration continues to sap the Empire State.

Florida boasted 9,578,500 nonfarm jobs at end of 2022 — 2,000 more than New York’s 9,576,100, according to Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The job numbers represent the first time that Florida has more workers than New York since at least 1982, according to the data, which was cited on Thursday by Bloomberg News.

The Empire State’s job destruction is even greater when looking at the data prior to the start of the pandemic three years ago. In February 2020, New York State had around 9.9 million jobs, compared with barely more than 9 million in the Sunshine State, the federal data show.

Florida’s boom reflects a migration trend that has intensified in recent years as Americans in high-tax locales such as New York, California, Massachusetts and Illinois flee for warmer, low-tax areas in the Sun Belt, including Florida, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia and Texas.

The trend accelerated further during the pandemic when remote work enabled employees to log into their jobs from anywhere since offices were closed.

Florida was one of the main beneficiaries of the exodus from the Empire State, which has been hampered by a slow post-COVID recovery as well as rampant violent crime.

Last year alone, more than 64,500 former residents of New York State moved to Florida — more than any year in history, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which tracks driver license statistics.

Last year’s record-shattering number comfortably eclipsed the prior mark of 61,728 New Yorkers who made the Florida switch in 2021, according to the data.

New York isn’t the only state where residents have been enticed to leave for year-round warm weather, beaches and palm trees.

New Jersey, California, Illinois and Pennsylvania all set new records for outbound migration to Florida in 2022, according to the data.

Florida’s population surge is noteworthy since the influx of young professionals is changing the perception of the Sunshine State from a locale primarily for retirees to an in-demand hub for tech and finance.

The hedge fund titan Ken Griffin generated headlines last year when he cited Chicago’s soaring crime rates as one of the factors that led him to relocate the headquarters of his $50 billion company, Citadel, to Miami.

Tech and finance companies that grew tired of onerous regulations in progressive cities like New York and San Francisco have found a more welcoming business environment in Miami, whose mayor recently boasted that the city has attracted a migration of $2 trillion worth of assets.

While Florida has seen explosive growth in recent years, New York could be years away from recovering the job losses that it incurred as a result of the pandemic.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statewide address on Wednesday that it may take another four years for the economy to return to its pre-pandemic levels.