[firemed]

Will South FL unemployment rise as RE industry jobs are lost. There will be some type of shakeout for sure. Palm Beach County has something like 10,000 realtors, but I doubt if all are working there full-time. The real question is will the job losses show up in the stats? Many working on construction crews are “illegal” so how (if at all) will they be counted? Our economy is service/tourism based. I would also keep an eye on how busy our restuarants, hotels, and resorts are this winter. If those industries shed jobs along with the RE / construction industry we could be in for a bumpy ride. I don’t forsee soup-lines either and I don’t think our local economy will be hit quite like Michigan with all the auto industry problems. But construction is as large in South Florida as the auto industry in Michigan. but we do have the service/tourism to fall back on.

[J.R.]

I am not at all an "expert business" person regarding unemployment but... I read the local classified ads every day. It is a personal, stupid, addiction. I read them all; the help wanted, dogs for sale, houses for rent and sale...everything. I think the classifieds say a lot about what is going on in the area.

I have noticed in the past year, especially the last 8 or 10 months, employment ads for my area have diminished considerably. I am in the "Treasure Coast" area. The Help Wanted ads used to cover several pages, every day. Now they take up one or two and a half on a good day. Of course that is not true for the weekend editions, but the week day editions are slim Glad I am not looking for a job here.

[BigJimSlade]

J.R., I am in Tampa. Have you noticed it for high-paying jobs or lower-paying? Everywhere I go, I see signs for help wanted at minimum wage places. I have not looked at higher-paying jobs recently. The signs usually aren't hanging out in the street.

[SunnyDog]

Unless commercial construction picks up the slack, there will be ill effectes on unemployment rates from the housing slowdown. Some of the more recent large hi-rise projects announced for downtown Miami are for office towers. Office space vacancies here are low, there haven't been many office towers built recently, and there is pent up demand for new construction.

[pbgflorida]

Originally Posted by BigJimSlade

Everywhere I go, I see signs for help wanted at minimum wage places.

It's because the housing market is flushing out those who would be working those minimum wage jobs.

I wouldn't say unemployment is drastically on the rise, but job vacancy certainly is as people flee with what little money they have left. Some who cannot keep pace with the outpricing of the lower class simply turn to crime, thus the increase in crime levels.

[tallrick]

I would like to know who needs this office space.

[SunnyDog]

Originally Posted by tallrick

I would like to know who needs this office space.

Look up vacancy rates in Dade in Broward for class a +b space.

[Jammie]

JR, that's not silly at all. How better to keep track of your economy then to keep track of employment ads and housing ads?

[firemed]

I'm not completely convinced of the great baby boomer influx that is gospel to so many of the region’s real estate professionals. Though there are millions of boomers getting ready to retire ‘not too many of them are Great Gatsby boomers’ who can afford condos priced in the 300k to millions,
High pricing of the past several years is way out of reach . ‘People lost their minds’ in valuing Southwest Florida land here in recent years,
During the recent pullback in residential financing, largely because developers are increasingly unable to meet lender deposit requirements, development activity has been shifting to retail, office, hotel and apartment construction,

“‘Watch out for raw land deals right now’ was the message from one panel of bankers. Land with no immediate development plans is almost impossible to finance, as is highly speculative property that depends on substantial rezoning or unusual permitting.” Mercantile needs to have paychecks to sell and jobs are needed to get paychecks to buy.“The latest report by the Labor Department showed construction companies got rid of 26,000 jobs.”

[Jammie]

Firemed, sadly, I believe your predictions over the realtor predictions. We are baby boomers and as you know we have family in Fla. and have been considering a move down there when my husband semi-retires. And you're right. There are many of us who don't have a spare half a million to invest in a home. And contrary to popular belief, there are many of the boomers who DON'T overspend or jump in without thinking just because they WANT something. Our generation was supposed to be the "ME" generation and I think that's not a fair assessment of most of us.