Florida Assembles Projected Employment Picture as Jobless Rates Jump
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
By: Gina Jordan

August 31, 2010 -- Healthcare and education are among the top industries for jobs in Florida, according to analysts working to forecast job growth. The project comes at a time when more than a million eligible workers in the state remain unemployed.

The Office of Economic and Demographic Research is projecting how Florida’s labor market will look over the next eight years. Florida’s jobless rate, after three months of declines, rose slightly in July to 11.5%, two points higher than the US as a whole.

Also, projected population growth has been lowered from 15.5% to 10%. Bill Dobson with the Agency for Workforce Innovation says that’s a significant drop that will impact employment growth.

“We’re also assuming that tight credit and some slow recovery of the state and national economy are going to force us to make a weaker forecast than we made last year,” notes Dobson. “We thought our economy would rebound a little bit sooner, but we’re seeing some sluggishness in the economy. So, that’s got our analysts to kind of be a little bit less optimistic about the forecast.”

Dobson says of the 22 major occupational groups, everyone except farming is expected to grow.

However, he says, earnings still need work. The average yearly wage in Florida is just under $41,000, while the national average is over $45,000.