After more than two years of dark clouds across much of the Sunshine state, a few rays of sunlight are finally beginning to break through. We believe the recession ended in Florida shortly after it did nationwide, which we deem was around the middle of last year. Nonfarm employment has risen during three of the past four months, producing a net gain of 78,000 jobs since bottoming in January of this year. While part of the recent improvement is due to hiring for the decennial Census, hiring has picked up across a broad assortment of industries, including hard-hit sectors, such as manufacturing and construction.

Unfortunately, Florida’s businesses have quite a bit of ground to make up and gains have, so far, been extremely tentative. Job losses during this past recession were far more severe than the nation’s and were the worst for the state in the modern era. Close to 925,000 jobs were lost across Florida between the cycle’s peak in March 2007 and the low in January 2010. This loss translates into 10.8 percent of all job losses nationwide. The heaviest cutbacks were in sectors tied most closely to the state’s housing boom. Just over a quarter of Florida’s job losses were in the construction industry, 10 percent were in manufacturing, 10 percent in financial services, 10 percent in retail trade and 5 percent were in wholesale trade.

To view the entire article please Click Here

Responses are currently closed.