Central
Florida has spent 2011 slogging through a recessionary hangover on its way to
adding almost 8,600 jobs during the past 12 months.
And while any job growth in this environment
is worth a nod — even if it's sluggish — a look at where those positions are
being created suggests the region's long-term economic well-being could use a
booster shot.
Job growth here has largely been concentrated
in the leisure-and-hospitality industry: the bars, restaurants, hotels and
theme parks that form the core of Central Florida's economy.
It is a sector filled with young, unskilled
labor willing to work for relatively little money, often without benefits.
These are the folks who cook your burgers, vacuum your hotel room and buckle
you into theme-park rides.
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They form an army of blue-collar laborers who
shovel coal into the engine of Central Florida's tourism train. And in 2011,
their numbers have risen.
During the past year, the
leisure-and-hospitality sector has added about 8,000 jobs in four-county Metro
Orlando. Total employment in the sector is up 4 percent compared with this time
last year. Statewide, leisure-and-hospitality has gained about 40,000 jobs in
the past year, an increase of about 4.2 percent.
By comparison, the region's manufacturing
sector is down by 0.8 percent and construction — one of Florida's hardest-hit
industries — has shrunk 4.1 percent.
Among Central Florida's 15 largest
non-government employers, six are in the leisure-and-hospitality sector. They
include Walt Disney Co., which has about 64,000 workers; Universal Orlando,
16,000; SeaWorld Parks, 5,600; and Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, about
6,900.
The sector accounts for more than 55 percent
of all jobs reported by the region's 15 biggest companies. And it has almost
single-handedly driven local job growth during the past 12 months, according to
Rollins College economist Bill Seyfried.
When that sector is excluded from the mix,
Metro Orlando's employment has risen by only a few hundred jobs.
"It's the fastest-growing," Seyfried
said of leisure-and-hospitality, "and now it's the largest sector."
On the upside, the sector provides lots of
jobs for workers with little special education or training. When the industry
is thriving, it expands and hires quickly. But those positions often come with
low pay and minimal benefits: On average, leisure-and-hospitality workers make
a little more than $11 an hour, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Manufacturing jobs, on average, pay about twice that.
Local officials have long talked about the
need to broaden Central Florida's economic base — and they have made progress.
The region's growing training-simulator industry has been praised by former
President Bill Clinton and now includes more than 100 companies employing about
20,000 people.
A "Medical City" is taking shape in
Lake Nona, in Orlando's southeastern corner. It includes the University of
Central Florida's new medical school and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research
Institute. A Nemours Children's Hospital, a VA hospital, the M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center and a University of Florida Research Center are under
construction.
But consider this: All told, the
training-simulator industry here employs about 20,000. Disney alone has three
times that number.
The leisure-and-hospitality sector accounts
for about one in every five jobs in Metro Orlando, according to the Labor
Department. That's up from one-in-six jobs in 2007, just before the recession
set in.
Construction employment, meanwhile, has fallen
to some of its lowest levels since 1996. It accounted for about 7.8 percent of
all jobs in 2007 and now accounts for just 4.4 percent.
"We're actually increasing our dependence
on leisure-and-hospitality," Seyfried said. "When what we'd hoped for
is the opposite."
The numbers highlight how difficult it is for
local elected and business leaders to change the makeup of a region's economy.
They can cajole and nudge and offer incentives to attract specific businesses
or nurture certain industries. But it is a long, and often frustrating journey
with victories at the margins.
Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
Business & Investment Opportunities
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