Florida / Economic data / Lee
Lee County labor force, employment and unemployment
Labor force, employment, unemployment and the unemployment rate for Lee County, monthly from Jan 1990, from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics, estimates produced by FloridaCommerce Labor Market Statistics. Consumer spending in Lee County; every county and the statewide map.
Not seasonally adjusted. Change compares the latest month with the same month a year earlier.
Lee County
Lee CountyCountyAug 2026: 5.2% unemployment, +0.5 pt on a year earlier; 352,280 employed
Latest month and a year earlier
| Measure | Aug 2026 | Aug 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Labor force | 371,492 | 371,374 | 0.0% |
| Employment | 352,280 | 353,796 | -0.4% |
| Unemployment | 19,212 | 17,578 | +9.3% |
| Unemployment rate | 5.2% | 4.7% | +0.5 pt |
Annual averages, as published by BLS
Annual figures are the averages BLS publishes, not sums or averages computed here. A year BLS has not averaged yet is not listed.
FloridaCommerce Labor Market Statistics and US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Lee County, FL, not seasonally adjusted; Jan 1990 to Aug 2026, 439 months published. The latest month is preliminary.
- Oct 2025: Data unavailable due to the 2025 lapse in appropriations.
Cities and towns over 25,000 in Lee County
Every city, town or village of 25,000 or more in the county that BLS publishes, not seasonally adjusted. p marks a preliminary month. Sort any column; select a place for its page.
| Place | Month | Labor force | Unemployment rate | Change, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonita Springs city | Aug 2026 p | 22,103 | 5.3% | +0.5 pt |
| Cape Coral city | Aug 2026 p | 108,806 | 4.9% | +0.4 pt |
| Estero village | Aug 2026 p | 13,991 | 5.6% | +0.4 pt |
| Fort Myers city | Aug 2026 p | 43,492 | 5.2% | +0.4 pt |
Sources on this page
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Local Area Unemployment Statistics, from the Florida series file la.data.16.Florida. Retrieved 2026-10-01. Counties and cities are not seasonally adjusted; the state is carried both ways. The latest month is preliminary until BLS revises it the following month.
- FloridaCommerce, Bureau of Workforce Statistics and Economic Research: Labor Market Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. LAUS is a federal and state program: the county and city estimates are produced by FloridaCommerce under BLS methodology and published by BLS, which is where every figure here is read from.
- Validated against BLS's own release tables, every figure they print for these areas, on every build:
- BLS Public Data API, the current year of every city series
- Labor force data by county, not seasonally adjusted, latest 14 months (laucntycur14)
- States: employment status of the civilian noninstitutional population, not seasonally adjusted (ststdnsadata)
- States: employment status of the civilian noninstitutional population, seasonally adjusted (ststdsadata)
- Blank months. A month BLS prints as not available is left blank, with BLS's footnote on the card. October 2025 was not collected during the lapse in appropriations, and BLS's 2025 annual averages are eleven month averages by its own note. Nothing is interpolated.
- Sources and methods.
Download the data
Monthly CSV, every area BLS annual averages CSV Statewide spending workbook
The monthly CSV has one row per area and month with labor force, employment, unemployment, the rate and BLS's footnote; the annual CSV has the averages BLS publishes.