New Jobs Report Positive For Central Florida Tourism and Online Retail
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
By: Amy Kiley

June 3, 2014 | WMFE, Orlando - A new U.S. Census Bureau report indicates Central Florida's online retail sector is growing and generating jobs.

According to the County Business Patterns report, online and mail-order retail employment grew 14 percent nationwide from March 2011 to March 2012. That's compared to .01 percent growth at "brick and mortar" stores.

U.S. Census Bureau Geographer Mike Ratcliffe says, in that time, Central Florida gained about 1,000 jobs in non-traditional retail. In March 2012, it had 318 businesses in the sector with $163 million in payroll. "What we tend to see in the online and mail-order businesses, is that average employee wages are higher than retail as a whole," he says. "So, it's a good trend we're seeing both nation-wide and locally."

And, the Census numbers are from before Amazon began building distribution centers in Lakeland and the Tampa area. Over the weekend, the company opened the application process for 500 new positions in Central Florida.