[Serious Conversation]

It is a common theme on these boards that Florida's economy is geared toward Tourist pol jobs. However, are there professional jobs in Florida seem to be doing okay. I have received multiple phone calls both from the Tampa and Orlando areas in IT even though I am not a highly paid professional. These jobs are generally in the $50,000 range. These are mostly blind recruiters and not serious offers.

I am thinking of pursuing these opportunities further. I currently live in Indiana and I am dissatisfied with the weather. My long-term plan is to move to Florida within the next 16 months. I think this is totally doable as I am not trying to replace a $100,000 per year job.

Do you think Florida's professional economy is worse than states like Georgia or Kansas? Is Florida really lagging behind the averages, is it meeting the averages, or exceeding the purchase? Give examples from your own life.

[Fl1150]

Don't believe all that false garbage about all tourist jobs because most people who say are ignorant anyway an have no clue what the market has. Plenty of options to choose from within the metro areas contrary to popular belief which is everything is low paying. However as you can see plenty of companies are looking for skilled talent an you can make a decent penny. Being worse than Kansas is laughable because what economy does that state have ? Kochs ? I heard they are running out of money to even fund basic public education because its being gamble on political interests. The nation economy as whole is not doing bad but it just depends on your field. Let me give you example of hypocrisy of the media saying South Florida worst area for stem jobs because of cost of housing in addition to low openings for college grads however scored high for higher wages. But yet this company is struggling to fill jobs because no talent is located their.

South Florida rated worst place to get a STEM job, study says - Sun Sentinel
Riviera Beach biopharma company seeks to fill 75 jobs - South Florida Business Journal

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by Fl1150

Don't believe all that false garbage about all tourist jobs because most people who say are ignorant anyway an have no clue what the market has. Plenty of options to choose from within the metro areas contrary to popular belief which is everything is low paying. However as you can see plenty of companies are looking for skilled talent an you can make a decent penny. Being worse than Kansas is laughable because what economy does that state have ? Kochs ? I heard they are running out of money to even fund basic public education because its being gamble on political interests. The nation economy as whole is not doing bad but it just depends on your field. Let me give you example of hypocrisy of the media saying South Florida worst area for stem jobs because of cost of housing in addition to low openings for college grads however scored high for higher wages. But yet this company is struggling to fill jobs because no talent is located their.

South Florida rated worst place to get a STEM job, study says - Sun Sentinel
Riviera Beach biopharma company seeks to fill 75 jobs - South Florida Business Journal

Here we go again, one company is dictating the employment scenario for the entire state versus independent studies. Naturally most on this forum will accept that as fact...

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by Emigrations

It is a common theme on these boards that Florida's economy is geared toward Tourist pol jobs. However, are there professional jobs in Florida seem to be doing okay. I have received multiple phone calls both from the Tampa and Orlando areas in IT even though I am not a highly paid professional. These jobs are generally in the $50,000 range. These are mostly blind recruiters and not serious offers.

I am thinking of pursuing these opportunities further. I currently live in Indiana and I am dissatisfied with the weather. My long-term plan is to move to Florida within the next 16 months. I think this is totally doable as I am not trying to replace a $100,000 per year job.

Do you think Florida's professional economy is worse than states like Georgia or Kansas? Is Florida really lagging behind the averages, is it meeting the averages, or exceeding the purchase? Give examples from your own life.

Bear in mind salaries when making a move and do a cost analysis because the perception of cheap living in Florida is rampant until one begins to crunch numbers sometimes. Rental housing and auto insurance are disproportionately high (versus salary) in many instances. There is what is referred to widely as the "Sunshine Tax" where many will give up their higher salaries elsewhere to move here for better weather, so there can be a competitive edge for the somewhat limited pool of desirable positions available here. If comparing Tampa or Orlando to Atlanta and Kansas City, you'll find Atlanta a good bit further ahead in terms of opportunity and salary in my opinion, with Kansas City a few notches above thanks mostly to a very affordable cost of living.

[Soup Not See]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Here we go again, one company is dictating the employment scenario for the entire state versus independent studies. Naturally most on this forum will accept that as fact...

Just as they accept the median household income and U3 unemployment rate as fact without doing a deep dive to see what is really going on ...

[StreetSmarts]

I dont think so.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Bear in mind salaries when making a move and do a cost analysis because the perception of cheap living in Florida is rampant until one begins to crunch numbers sometimes. Rental housing and auto insurance are disproportionately high (versus salary) in many instances. There is what is referred to widely as the "Sunshine Tax" where many will give up their higher salaries elsewhere to move here for better weather, so there can be a competitive edge for the somewhat limited pool of desirable positions available here. If comparing Tampa or Orlando to Atlanta and Kansas City, you'll find Atlanta a good bit further ahead in terms of opportunity and salary in my opinion, with Kansas City a few notches above thanks mostly to a very affordable cost of living.

The reason I used Georgia as an example is that its unemployment rate appears to be in reverse. Atlanta is a huge metro and as of September still had an U3 of over 9%. KS is just a flyover state where there doesn't seem to be much going on. I'd be hard-pressed to think Atlanta is that much cheaper than Tampa, or even where I'm from in Indy.

[Spring Hillian]

Look at the facts instead of opinions on a message board. There are 2 camps on this (and I guess any) forum. Either they despise FL or love living here.

Tourism is a huge part of the economy here. We get 80 million or so visitors every year.
Tourism is not everywhere and in most places where it is it is not the back bone of the economy with the exception of Orlando metro Key West since both are dense in tourism.



There are thousands and thousands of non-tourist non-service sector employment opportunities
here.

FL
U1 U2 U3 U4 U5 U6
3.8 3.5 6.5 7.1 7.8 13.4

NJ
4.0 3.8 6.7 7.2 8.2 12.9

MI 3.9 3.9 7.8 8.3 9.2 14.2

CA
4.1 4.2 7.8 8.4 9.4 15.8


As we can see, the numbers really dont vary through various areas of the country.

In the 25 + years Ive lived here everyone I knew was earning a decent wage regardless of what they were doing. I did not know any teenagers or young adults who were working in fast food or other unskilled employment where one would find workers earning less than optimal wages.

If the picture in FL was as bleak as some paint it to be there would be huge tent cities housing all those low paid workers, no traffic on the roads creating traffic jams every day, no houses being built or sold, soup kitchens for the masses, rampant crime. The overall violent crime rate has had a significant decrease of 60.0 percent from 1,188.9 offenses per 100,000 population in 1993 to 476.1 in 2013. Florida's population increased 41.5 percent during the period. High crime areas are found in every major FL city just as they are found in the major cities in every state across the nation.

Florida is not the "cheap" state it used to be as far as COL. To determine the differences use any on line COL calculator and compare your city against FL cities.

People talk about extreme auto insurance rates, $2,000, $4,000 a year. Give a call to AAA Insurance Agency and get some actual quotes.

People talk about extreme homeowners insurance rates. Florida home insurance rates are based on a perfect storm of factors, including pricey real estate, flooding, thunderstorms, tornadoes, wildfire, hurricanes and tropical storms. Not surprisingly, there is no such thing as cheap home insurance in FL. In fact, according to a recent study by the Insurance Information Institute, FL is the most expensive state in the nation where home insurance is concerned.

There are some one time costs such as changing title on your vehicles to a FL title, deposits on utilities, rental charges of 1st and last month plus a security deposit. The best thing is our weather. It is great. It is very hot and humid from May-September (check historical weather records for the actuals) but fall, winter and spring are wonderful.

The people who didnt have a good time in FL are the detractors. The most usual complaint is the hot and lengthy summers. The complaints about across the board low wages is bull.

One thing about employers. They can be wary of new transplants since the chances of that person leaving for greener pastures are high. Employers waste a lot of money training someone to do their job and then they bail out.

Originally Posted by Emigrations

It is a common theme on these boards that Florida's economy is geared toward Tourist pol jobs. However, are there professional jobs in Florida seem to be doing okay. I have received multiple phone calls both from the Tampa and Orlando areas in IT even though I am not a highly paid professional. These jobs are generally in the $50,000 range. These are mostly blind recruiters and not serious offers.

I am thinking of pursuing these opportunities further. I currently live in Indiana and I am dissatisfied with the weather. My long-term plan is to move to Florida within the next 16 months. I think this is totally doable as I am not trying to replace a $100,000 per year job.

Do you think Florida's professional economy is worse than states like Georgia or Kansas? Is Florida really lagging behind the averages, is it meeting the averages, or exceeding the purchase? Give examples from your own life.

[AES328]

First off, most people are stupid and believe everything they read and/or like to follow trends. Florida gets bashed in most major media outlets these days, sooooo there you go. It's "trendy" to kick Floriduh so they do it.

Secondly, I think the reality is somewhere in between the two camps; those being the cheerleaders, and the haters.

Personally, I'm a network engineer and make what I made at my last position in DC. It was easy to find the job (they actually found me), but the competition was more fierce, so for my personal experience, it wasn't that the job market was bad, it was just more competitive. There are good jobs here, just not as many as in major metros that cost exponentially more to live in.

[gypsychic]

My husband left Indiana DECADES ago, and has done well in Florida ever since. No place he would rather live, either.