Jobs & Economy in Boca Raton
Boca Raton's labor market has a genuinely distinct character within Palm Beach County: Florida Atlantic University gives it a real university-town employment layer, and the city has long served as a corporate back-office hub anchored by Office Depot's global headquarters. But unemployment data at the city, county, and metro level paints a softer picture than the corporate anchors alone would suggest, and Office Depot's HQ presence carries real recent uncertainty.
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Learn moreFAU: A Genuine University-Town Employment Layer
Florida Atlantic University's main campus is headquartered in Boca Raton. The university serves more than 30,000 students system-wide, with over 70% taking classes at the Boca Raton campus, employs more than 3,000 people, and cites a $6.3 billion annual economic impact against a $900 million annual budget, per the university's own figures. This is the clearest factor distinguishing Boca's labor market from its Palm Beach County neighbors.
Office Depot: Real HQ Presence, Recent Ownership Change
Office Depot's global headquarters remains at 6600 North Military Trail in Boca Raton, with local employee counts cited around 2,000 (against a company-wide U.S. headcount of roughly 19,000, per recent reporting). In September 2025, Office Depot agreed to be taken private by Atlas Holdings, and local reporting (CBS12) has since covered layoffs at the Boca Raton offices -- a real, disclosed sign that the HQ's headcount is not guaranteed to hold steady going forward, not simply a stable corporate anchor.
Other Corporate Anchors
ADT Security Services and Windward Risk Managers (parent of Florida Peninsula Insurance, Edison Insurance, and Ovation Home Insurance Exchange) are also headquartered in Boca Raton, per regional business-directory sources, adding further weight to the city's corporate/back-office profile beyond Office Depot alone.
Unemployment Reads Differently Depending on Geography
A city-level tracker (YCharts) cites Boca Raton's unemployment rate at 4.8% in 2026. Palm Beach County's rate was 4.4% in May 2026, up 0.9 percentage points year-over-year. And nonagricultural employment in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach Metro Division was 701,200 in June 2026, up a modest 1,500 jobs (+0.2%) year-over-year, after the same metro division lost 3,800 jobs (-0.5%) in April 2026. These are three different geographic levels (city, county, metro division), not competing estimates of the same figure -- but together they describe a softer, more mixed labor market than the FAU and Office Depot anchors alone would suggest.
Healthcare Remains the County's Largest Sector
Healthcare is Palm Beach County's largest employment sector by share, accounting for an estimated 17% of the workforce -- more than 90,000 full-time jobs -- per Business Development Board of Palm Beach County data. The School District of Palm Beach County is the county's single largest individual employer, with more than 23,000 employees. Boca Raton's economy sits inside this broader, more diversified county base, not apart from it -- its university and corporate identity is a distinguishing layer, not the whole picture.
Key takeaways
- FAU's main campus is in Boca Raton: 30,000+ students system-wide (70%+ on the Boca campus), 3,000+ employees, and a cited $6.3 billion annual economic impact -- the clearest driver of Boca's distinct labor market.
- Office Depot's global HQ remains in Boca Raton (~2,000 local employees cited), but the company was taken private by Atlas Holdings in a deal agreed September 2025, and local reporting has since covered layoffs at the Boca offices -- a real caveat on the HQ's stability, not just a stable corporate anchor.
- ADT Security Services and Windward Risk Managers (Florida Peninsula, Edison, Ovation Home Insurance) are also headquartered in Boca Raton, reinforcing its corporate/back-office identity.
- Unemployment reads differently by geography: 4.8% for the city (2026), 4.4% for Palm Beach County (May 2026, up 0.9 points YoY), and a nearly flat +0.2% year-over-year nonfarm payroll change for the three-city metro division through June 2026.
- Healthcare, not university or corporate back-office work, remains Palm Beach County's largest employment sector (~17% of the workforce), and the School District of Palm Beach County alone employs 23,000+ -- Boca's economy sits inside a broader, more diversified county base than its university/corporate identity alone suggests.
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