The Florida economy, more specifically, the SW Florida economy mirrors the U. S. economy in terms of the monetary crisis, high unemployment rate and debt issues.
SW Florida has its own peculiarities. The housing boom was fueled by poor lending practices by financial institutions. Borrowers, from both the private and public sector, knew they were borrowing beyond their means, but got away with living dangerously, at least temporarily.
The burst of the debt bubble brought on a reality check for owners, buyers, sellers and debtors. Price adjustments and market corrections ensued and recovery became the focus.
Special Funding
Need shapes the market and is manifesting itself in SW Florida in the form of Federal funding for stimulus projects aimed at primarily creating new jobs and injecting liquidity into the economy.
- Road construction projects are large scale examples. The Florida Renewable Energy Grants Program has funded a $2.5 million biodiesel station.
- The Everglades Restoration and Investment Act will provide $2 billion over 10 years.
As a direct result of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill , two sources of funds have become immediately available.
- The U.S. Small Business Administration will provide disaster loans to citizens of 25 now eligible counties.
- BP, British Petroleum, has already made a payment of $25 million to Florida to fund a Global Tourism Campaign to reassure the world that Florida is still a great destination.
Unemployment has hit 12% in Florida and the Back to Work Florida program has received $61.2 million of a $200 million commitment to be used to create 10,000 new jobs. CFO Press Release 3/9/2010 CFO Sink Calls for Our Tax Dollars to Get to Florida for Back to Work Program
Tourism remains the most important SW Florida industry, if not the entire State. In 2009, 84 million tourists brought their wallets full of $65 billion dollars in taxable sales. According to the Florida government official tourism website VISIT FLORIDA Official Media Newsroom, they provided 1 million jobs. And, for the first 3 months of 2010, 22.7 million visitors were tallied. Despite the U.S. economy and the world economic condition, there was an increase of 2.7% from the same time period of the previous year according to their statistics.
Job opportunities still exist and have evolved from the “jobs for all”, to the more specialized jobs in primarily in areas of heavy construction, medicine, and services.
Heavy construction, especially the building of roads, highways and bridges for the infrastructure to support the cities’ growth are important and well-paying sectors. The federal government has provided grants to promote job growth.
Medical providers such as doctors, nurses, and medical office support staff have many well-paying job opportunities available to them.
- Federal grants and subsidies to education, especially nursing, have opened doors for prospective students to opportunities in education with guaranteed jobs upon graduation. Four Florida state universities have such programs and various other specialized grants.
- Demographically, the demand for services is more concentrated here since SW Florida caters to more elderly requiring such services. Advertisements for eye specialists, skin specialists, and joint specialists abound.
Another business specialty, probably more peculiar to SW Florida at least in terms of the number of facilities, is the “life-care facility”. It is often not called a “facility” , but rather a “lifestyle community” or something similar. This renaming diminishes the stigma attached to a nursing home environment, while permitting a transition to it should it be required. Life-care living communities offer varied levels of services for correspondingly varied prices.
Some facilities offer tiered services and progressive levels of care. They offer a more comfortable and less institutional alternative to the traditional nursing home setting. Of course, the fancier the “lifestyle”, the fancier the price.
Whatever the level of service, they all need workers.
Other employment opportunities, often not advertised, include the following:
- Landscaping and lawn care workers are in demand year round. The climate and the bugs constantly create conditions that need to be reckoned with.
- Air conditioning technicians keep the A/C going, a needed part of each household and business.
- Wells and pumps still provide water to many homes and need service and maintenance more often than not. Technicians are in demand here, too.
- Swimming pools require technicians to balance the chemicals, clean the pools, and keep the mechanical components running.
I generally don’t think it would be wise to come down here without a firm job offer unless you actually don’t need a job.
- If you receive an adequate pension or other fixed income, have some cash set aside, you’re in a better position to take advantage of some of the current opportunities especially in housing.
- Pensioners, artists, writers, and others who depend on themselves, rather than an employer, and are not tied to a specific locale are also flexible enough that the local economic condition theoretically can be weathered. Cash set aside certainly helps.
What jobs are actually available? (here’s that link again). Anyone with some creative thought or sheer determination to become employed ought to be able to find employment. Versatility and adaptability are the keys to finding a job niche in today’s Florida.
The main issue is that many of these wage-paying jobs are below the national norm. It is a situation in which supplementing a pension might be easier than creating a new career. One needs to persevere; there’s just no other way to put it.
Often down here, two part-time jobs might be better than one full-time job. Certainly better than none at all. That might be what you need to do while you’re waiting for a new career to open up.
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