Central Florida led the Sunshine State in job creation once again in March, according to the latest statewide unemployment figures released Friday.

Gov. Rick Scott announced the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area gained 50,200 new jobs over the last 12 months, the highest amount among all of Florida's metropolitan areas.

The Orlando area's unemployment rate dropped by 1.1 percent from March 2014 to March 2015, to 5.1 percent.

The latest unemployment figures show Florida's jobless rate edged up slightly in March, despite a gain of 29,400 private sector jobs.

Scott announced the new employment figures Friday while visiting Kellstrom Defense Aerospace, Inc. in Miramar, which is expanding its operations to add 20 jobs.

The figures show the March unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, slightly higher than February's 5.6 percent. But it is a significant decrease from the March 2014 figure of 6.5 percent.

Scott says Florida has recovered all of the private-sector jobs lost during the 2007 recession and surpassed the previous peak private-sector employment in March 2007.

The governor says Florida's annual private-sector job growth rate, now at 4.2 percent, has exceeded that of the nation as a whole since April 2012.

Each county in Central Florida went down in unemployment by 0.2–0.3 percent from February.

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Local unemployment by county

March 2015, Central Florida counties only.
(Preliminary, not seasonally adjusted)

RANK* COUNTY MARCH 2015 FEBRUARY 2015
3 Sumter 7.4% 7.6%
10 Marion 6.6% 6.8%
11 Flagler 6.5% 6.8%
24 Brevard 6.0% 6.2%
31 Volusia 5.8% 6.0%
31 Osceola 5.8% 6.0%
38 Lake 5.5% 5.7%
55 Orange 5.0% 5.2%
57 Seminole 4.9% 5.1%

* Out of 67 Florida counties.

Source: Florida Department of Economic Opportunity