CountyPayrolls

The biggest industry in each Florida county

By Madison BrooksPublished Data: County Business Patterns 2023

Health care and social assistance is the largest employer in 32 of Florida's 67 counties. Retail trade leads in 18, hotels and restaurants in 11, manufacturing in 3 and transportation and warehousing in 2; Glades County is the one county where administrative and support services come first. These counts use private-sector jobs in March 2023, from County Business Patterns.

The largest industry, county by county

Six industries between them are the largest employer in every county. The table groups the counties by which one comes first; each county page shows the full list.

Largest industry by jobsCountiesExamples
Health care & social assistanceCounties32ExamplesAlachua, Baker, Brevard, Broward, Calhoun, Citrus and 26 more
Retail tradeCounties18ExamplesBradford, Charlotte, Flagler, Hendry, Jackson, Jefferson and 12 more
Hotels & restaurantsCounties11ExamplesBay, Collier, Franklin, Gulf, Monroe, Nassau and 5 more
ManufacturingCounties3ExamplesDixie, Hamilton, Taylor
Transportation & warehousingCounties2ExamplesDeSoto, Union
Administrative & support servicesCounties1ExamplesGlades

Ranking by payroll instead of jobs changes the answer in 28 counties, because the biggest employers are often not the best-paying ones. By payroll, health care leads in 45 counties.

The payroll ranking is led elsewhere by manufacturing in eight, professional, scientific and technical services in four, hotels and restaurants in four, retail trade in two, transportation and warehousing in two, finance and insurance in one, construction in one. Hotels and restaurants, the largest employer in eleven counties, lead by payroll in four: many jobs, but low pay per job. Each county page shows both views, the industry with the most jobs and the one with the largest payroll, in its industry chart.

Health care: the default leader

Health care and social assistance is published for all 67 counties. In the middle county it holds 17.0% of private jobs. Its share is highest in Liberty County (36.9%), Calhoun County (34.3%) and Citrus County (32.4%), and lowest in Glades County (3.2%).

Because government is outside CBP, the share is of private jobs only. Where the public sector is a large employer, health care looks bigger here than it would in a count of all jobs.

Counties led by hotels and restaurants

In 11 counties the largest employer is accommodation and food services: Bay, Collier, Franklin, Gulf, Monroe, Nassau, Okaloosa, Orange, Osceola, St. Johns, Walton. They range from Orange County, with 842,028 jobs, to Franklin County with 2,315. The sector's grip is tightest in Monroe County, where the sector holds 43.2% of all private jobs, 3.32 times its share across Florida.

The sector is the lowest-paying of the 19 statewide, at $28,507. Counties that lean on it therefore tend to show a lower average pay than their size alone would suggest.

Retail-led counties

Retail trade comes first in 18 counties, 12 of them inside a metro area. Several have added residents quickly: since 2019 the population grew 14.8% in Pasco County, 14.6% in Flagler County, 13.7% in Polk County, against 6.6% for Florida. At the other end are small counties such as Jefferson County, Washington County, Wakulla County, each with fewer than 5,000 private jobs, where a few stores rank among the largest private employers.

Retail pays $37,892 on average statewide, 0.63 times the all-industry figure, so retail-led counties also tend to sit in the lower half of the pay ranking: 12 of the 18 rank below the middle county.

Factory and freight counties

Manufacturing is the largest employer in Dixie County, Hamilton County, Taylor County. All three are small; in Dixie County the sector holds 32.3% of jobs. Transportation and warehousing leads in DeSoto County and Union County.

In counties this small, one plant or depot can decide which industry ranks first. The ranking is still correct, but it says more about one employer than about a broad local economy.

Where each industry is most concentrated

Being the largest employer is not the same as being unusually concentrated. The location quotient compares an industry's share of a county's jobs with its share across all 67 counties: 2.00× means twice as common as across the 67 counties combined. The table lists, for each industry, the county where it is most concentrated among counties with at least 100 jobs in it.

IndustryMost concentrated inLocation quotientJobs there
Administrative & support servicesMost concentrated inGlades CountyLocation quotient3.40×Jobs there298
Health care & social assistanceMost concentrated inLiberty CountyLocation quotient2.32×Jobs there399
Retail tradeMost concentrated inWakulla CountyLocation quotient1.83×Jobs there1,133
Hotels & restaurantsMost concentrated inMonroe CountyLocation quotient3.32×Jobs there16,050
Professional & technical servicesMost concentrated inOkaloosa CountyLocation quotient1.72×Jobs there8,194
ConstructionMost concentrated inJefferson CountyLocation quotient2.35×Jobs there323
Finance & insuranceMost concentrated inHillsborough CountyLocation quotient2.19×Jobs there79,086
Transportation & warehousingMost concentrated inUnion CountyLocation quotient5.14×Jobs there379
Wholesale tradeMost concentrated inHamilton CountyLocation quotient2.46×Jobs there190
ManufacturingMost concentrated inDixie CountyLocation quotient7.27×Jobs there585
Other servicesMost concentrated inTaylor CountyLocation quotient1.93×Jobs there386
Arts & recreationMost concentrated inHardee CountyLocation quotient3.11×Jobs there442
Real estate & rentalMost concentrated inWalton CountyLocation quotient3.06×Jobs there2,124
Educational servicesMost concentrated inVolusia CountyLocation quotient2.05×Jobs there7,922
Management of companiesMost concentrated inPolk CountyLocation quotient2.88×Jobs there14,550
InformationMost concentrated inWakulla CountyLocation quotient1.65×Jobs there150
UtilitiesMost concentrated inHardee CountyLocation quotient8.62×Jobs there157
Agriculture, forestry & fishingMost concentrated inGlades CountyLocation quotient110.59×Jobs there132
Mining & quarryingMost concentrated inPolk CountyLocation quotient9.22×Jobs there853

Very high quotients belong to small industries. Agriculture in CBP is tiny statewide, so 132 jobs in Glades County produce a ratio of 111×. Broad industries cannot reach such values: retail's highest quotient is 1.83× and health care's 2.32×. Most top spots go to small counties; only four of the 19 belong to a county with more than 100,000 jobs: Hillsborough County in finance and insurance; Volusia County in private educational services; Polk County in management of companies; Polk County in mining and quarrying.

Each industry page maps this ratio for every county, and the comparer shows it for any two counties side by side.

Related

Data as of: 2023 County Business Patterns (released 2025); population July 1, 2023 (Vintage 2024 estimates); retrieved October 27, 2026. Dollar amounts are nominal (not adjusted for inflation). Statistics for general information, not career, business or investment advice.

Sources