Orlando: No.1 in tourism and dead last in wages. Orlando Sentinel (Miami: low income, employment)

[tinytrump]

Some make me laugh -they hate the poor workers, yet they love to go out to eat-shop, hit a movie, order pizza, take the kids to amusement park- and sometimes smile at the poor CNA cleaning up your Vmit when you sick at the hospital. Keep looking down your noses, one day you will end up in the old age home and maybe what goes around will come around. That would be justice.

BIG corporation HIRE illegals. ONLY REASON THEY ARE HERE! Go file a FOIA investigation and see how many I-9's inspections show who is doing what. get the FACTS

BIG corporations open shop where it is least expensive, spend less over head, and get the best Tax perks. Houston boomed- in a big way-they gave them huge tax breaks, but do you really think that high quality intelligent group of people were sitting on the sidelines waiting on the stem jobs to pop in? There were nothing but cows and cowboys at first.

Houston ranks No. 20 in FORBES’ 14th annual ranking of The Best Places for Business and Careers. Houston’s $384 billion economy boomed by 8.6% in 2011, and is expected to expand 8.5% this year in job growth. People are chasing those jobs. The Houston metropolitan area, with a population of 6.1 million, experienced a net migration gain of 313,800 new residents during the past five years. People transfer all over the place for stem or higher paying jobs- Energy continues to power the economy, but health care, transportation and technology are gaining. Three of the four top medical research institutions in Texas are based here, employing 92,500 people. Exxon Mobil is building a 385-acre corporate campus here that will accommodate 10,000 employees. “The company announced this month it was transferring 2,100 employees from Fairfax, Va., as well as 110 from Akron, Ohio, to Houston.

Why Houston? “You have a constellation of energy companies in Houston, and the city provides a *stable structure with its political and regulatory commitment, which we find extremely important...I can bet my bottom dollar the people would say NOO -don't come here we are to big now, too much traffic, too much noise, we want our little area to stay the same -

While Rest Of U.S. Economy Plods, Houston Gets Hot - Forbes

[annerk]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

And the clueless Central Florida leadership continues to strive largely toward increasing/expanding the service based economy while simultaneously making overtures towards STEM companies to expand into the area. Which STEM company CEO/Board of Directors in their right mind is going to think that's a good decision with our pool of poorly educated/low skill workforce and insufficient infrastructure?

Actually they are already coming, and doing so in droves. They are actively recruiting at the various Florida colleges and universities. Florida High Tech Corridor » Where they can't find locals, they are bringing in people from other areas. Those people buy homes and spend money, creating more jobs.

Change doesn't happen overnight, but I do think that the politicians have seen the error of their ways and are actively working to correct the dependence on a tourism economy.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by chopchop0

Leverage medical city.... make Orlando a recreational and medical tourism destination.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nona_Medical_City

I believe that is already in the works. They need to finish building it out before they can really heavily market it.

[boy3365]

Even if we were to miraculously get an influx of STEM and generally higher paying jobs in Orlando over the next 6 months, how will that solve the minimum wage tourism sector employee problem? It's not like those people are going to be applying for those engineering, medical, accounting/finance, etc. jobs. The only exception would be those handful of more educated workers took those jobs while they wait for something better to come available.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by boy3365

Even if we were to miraculously get an influx of STEM and generally higher paying jobs in Orlando over the next 6 months, how will that solve the minimum wage tourism sector employee problem? It's not like those people are going to be applying for those engineering, medical, accounting/finance, etc. jobs. The only exception would be those handful of more educated workers took those jobs while they wait for something better to come available.

I don't think anyone said "six months." This is a long term situation that will take 10+ years before we have a strong economy based on multiple industries. There is no overnight fix.

That said, here's how it will work.

As more and more people become employed in better paying jobs, the labor pool for retail, fast food, theme parks, hospitality, etc. will begin to dry up. Employers will begin to offer higher pay to be able to attract a higher caliber of employee.

Doesn't anyone remember when the unemployment rate had dropped to under 2% around 2006 that McDonald's was offering $14 an hour to attract decent quality candidates?

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by annerk

Actually they are already coming, and doing so in droves. They are actively recruiting at the various Florida colleges and universities. Florida High Tech Corridor » Where they can't find locals, they are bringing in people from other areas. Those people buy homes and spend money, creating more jobs.

Change doesn't happen overnight, but I do think that the politicians have seen the error of their ways and are actively working to correct the dependence on a tourism economy.

Actually the link you provided is for a statewide program which is paying dividends in Jacksonville especially (along with Tampa), yet one sees or hears little about Orlando in terms of tech growth. That type of growth doesn't happen overnight but there has to be a concerted effort which hasn't been the case up until now as city leaders have had their "foot on the accelerator" for tourism/service sector growth and still fledgling/exploratory efforts for STEM jobs. It's going to take decades (if at all) at that rate.

Capital Soup - Florida News Straight from the Source

[tinytrump]

JAX has a huge port also has land, land and more land. It can build with out bothering the cow pastures and citrus farms- In either case- they are not going to change what is feeding the masses- and Orlando is Tourist Town galore!

Florida's unemployment rate in December was 5.8 percent, the lowest since 2008, but that's not low enough to pressure businesses to raise wages."We are trying to create those high-paying jobs in technology and health care, and we are seeing success. But the reality is that tourism jobs are mainstream in our area. The whole strategy of diversifying more is a long-term thing," he said.

Orlando stars in Florida job growth 2015 - Orlando Sentinel

Economy Strengths:

• International Trade (40% of all U.S. exports to Latin and South America pass through Florida)
• Tourism — with 87.3 million visitors in 2011 (a record number), Florida is the top travel destination in the world. The tourism industry has an economic impact of $67 billion on Florida’s economy. Click here for additional tourism facts and statistics.
• Space Industry — The space industry represents $4.1 billion of the state's economy. The average annual wage of aerospace workers is approximately $67,000. The number employed at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) alone is 13,000 and Florida ranks 4th among the states in overall aerospace employment with 33,000 jobs.
• Agriculture — Florida leads the southeast in farm income. Florida produces about 67% of the U.S. oranges and accounts for about 40% of the world's orange juice supply.
• Construction — This industry's strength results from the steady stream of new residents and visitors who are welcomed to Florida each year.
• Services — growth in high tech, financial & back office operations
• Software — many small, entrepreneurial companies
• Health Technology (medical, biotech, laboratories)
• University Research — more than $500 million per year in sponsored research at Florida universities
• (Click Here) for more information on Florida's economy
• State of Florida.com | Florida Quick Facts

[annerk]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Actually the link you provided is for a statewide program which is paying dividends in Jacksonville especially (along with Tampa), yet one sees or hears little about Orlando in terms of tech growth. That type of growth doesn't happen overnight but there has to be a concerted effort which hasn't been the case up until now as city leaders have had their "foot on the accelerator" for tourism/service sector growth and still fledgling/exploratory efforts for STEM jobs. It's going to take decades (if at all) at that rate.

Capital Soup - Florida News Straight from the Source

I disagree. I would also say that with Poly on the doorstep of Orlando, we'll begin to see increased incubator growth which will lead to hundreds of high paying STEM jobs within the decade.

I'm not saying that this will all happen overnight. I am saying that Orlando is poised to be a player in the STEM field and that over time the area will rely less and less on tourism.

Will there always be a subset of workers employed in low wage jobs? Of course. People who have no motivation to go further, people who lack the education and language skills to go further, illegal immigrants, released felons, the list goes on. The honest truth is that the majority of the people stuck in low paying jobs created the problem through their own action or inaction. They didn't take the time to finish high school or learn English, they committed a crime either by being here illegally or due to poor judgement, the list goes on.

[boy3365]

Originally Posted by annerk

I don't think anyone said "six months." This is a long term situation that will take 10+ years before we have a strong economy based on multiple industries. There is no overnight fix.

That said, here's how it will work.

As more and more people become employed in better paying jobs, the labor pool for retail, fast food, theme parks, hospitality, etc. will begin to dry up. Employers will begin to offer higher pay to be able to attract a higher caliber of employee.

Doesn't anyone remember when the unemployment rate had dropped to under 2% around 2006 that McDonald's was offering $14 an hour to attract decent quality candidates?

I was speaking hypothetically. Let's say that we got our wish and six months from now, we miraculously had a steady influx of high paying jobs. The non-college educated hospitality industry worker won't be eligible for the $50K or the always unspecified "living wage" jobs anyway. How would that make their lives better?

The only way I could see McDonald's, Walmart, etc. offering that much pay is if a large chunk of their current CFL employees are engineers, accountants, etc. just waiting for something better to open in the area. I did hear about cities in North Dakota where retailers are paying really high wages because people are moving there in droves for drilling-related jobs. However, that's probably because no one outside of that industry wants to live in North Dakota. I don't think we have a "no one wants to live here" problem.

So, in my opinion, having more high paying industries in Orlando will attract college grads to move or stay here, but the person who doesn't have the education/skills and who is not trying to improve them will always have that $8-$10/hour retail/hospitality/tourism job, and we have plenty of them for the long haul.

I wasn't here in 2006, but if that was the case, then great! :-) Was that a Florida thing or was it national?

[tinytrump]

The Unlikely Cities That Will Power the U.S. Economy

We are #57 in 100 cities who have STEM Occupations. We also pay $70K a yr. vs $120K in San Jose CA--- but, they pay $92K in Huntsville AL- go figure!

read further: pay vs cost of living

Huntsville $92K - 97.4%

Orlando $69,490 -104.8%

in FL Tampa $69,680 -97.6%

JAX $70,900 -100.8%

Miami $67,450 -119.7%



San Jose $120,300 - 221.3%


just graduated- where would you go? big company where would you build?