Despite Southwest Florida Housing Market Slowdown, Job Market Gains Strength

Hunting for a job in Southwest Florida?

Now is actually a great time to do just that.

A Manpower Employment Outlook Survey says so.

• According to the survey, the Naples/Fort Myers job market is expected to be among the strongest in the nation in the second quarter of this year.
• The survey says 77 percent of companies interviewed locally plan to hire more employees — and none expect to reduce their payrolls — from April to June.
• Another 13 percent expect to keep the same number of employees, and the rest are unsure what they will do in those months.

“Employer hiring intentions are much more positive than they were a year ago when 50 percent of companies surveyed thought job gains were likely and none intended to cut back,” a Manpower spokeswoman said.

Even as declining Florida mortgage demand has depressed the real estate climate, the outlook in the Southwest Florida job market is the second strongest in the country and the strongest in Florida.

In Florida, Stuart County comes in second behind Southwest Florida in the survey, with 56 percent of employers surveyed saying they planned to add more people. Broward County ranked third, with 50 percent expecting to increase their work force in the quarter.

Nationally, U.S. employers look a lot more pessimistic about adding staff.

Of the 14,000 companies interviewed for the survey across the country, 28 percent expect to increase their payrolls, and 7 percent plan to make cutbacks. Fifty-nine percent plan no changes, and 6 percent are undecided.

In Southwest Florida, job prospects are expected to be strongest in such areas as durable goods manufacturing, transportation, retail, finance, education and public administration.

“I think there are a lot of job openings all over the place, high-end jobs and service industry jobs … It’s just a matter of employees finding them,” said Jessica Kardas, vice president of community relations for the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce.

Locally, much of the demand for jobs is in retail sales — and it’s coming from a variety of other service-oriented businesses, such as restaurants and hotels, that are the subject of new commercial real estate projects.

The opening of two malls in south Lee County, Gulf Coast Town Center and Coconut Point Town Center, created more than 6,000 jobs.

At the same time, Coastland Center mall in Naples is expanding, adding more shops and restaurants. The three malls and other new shopping centers are stealing workers and job prospects away from other employers, and making it tougher to fill vacant jobs.

“I think the city of Naples and Collier County is just a great place to live. Who wouldn’t want to live here? It’s just going to keep thriving,” said Kardas of the Naples Chamber of Commerce.

But not all sectors are booming, thanks to a slowing Southwest Florida housing market that has impacted adversely many related businesses.

While commercial construction remains strong, the same can’t be said for residential home builders, with such a drastic slowdown in the region’s housing market.

During the past eight months, the Workforce Development Board has seen a 45 percent jump in traffic at its Career and Service Centers, compared to a year ago. Much of that traffic is coming from people who have lost or walked away from jobs in housing-related businesses.

“We are placing more people in jobs than ever before,” he said.

In January, the jobless rates rose in Lee and Collier counties. Lansberry said those increases reflect what’s going on in the housing market as not only construction workers, but Florida home mortgage originators, real estate agents and many other professionals are now out of work.

A shortage of affordable housing, particularly in Naples, makes recruitment all that much tougher. More applicants are living in Fort Myers or Bonita, and when they’re hired in Naples they have to worry about a long commute.

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