Service-sector Strength

Service-sector Strength

by Aysegul Timur, Ph.D. | Economist

The Gulf Coast's unemployment rate remains low in spite of the contraction in construction. Service-sector jobs continue to grow.

Despite the decline in building permits for residential construction by 69% from a year ago, the unemployment rate in most Gulf Coast counties remains under 4%. That's because jobs in other industries are picking up the slack.

In fact, Southwest Florida's service-oriented economy is holding the unemployment rate low despite layoffs in construction and related industries. However, the slight increase in unemployment is unavoidable and is likely to rise even more at the end of the year due to slowing growth nationally.

Statewide, the category of education and health services experienced the most growth, with a 3.7% year-over-year increase. Separately, educational services grew 4.9%, and health care and social assistance jobs increased 3.5%. These industries have delivered the fastest-growing occupation in almost every county in the state.

By contrast, both construction and manufacturing employment declined annually by 2.5% and 1.8%, respectively, across the state.

At the county level, Lee County employment statistics showed that the most employment growth was in leisure and hospitality category, with an annual increase of 6.7%; professional and business services, up 5.7%; wholesale trade, up 4.2%, service producing jobs, up 3.8%.

The biggest employment declines were in the information industry, which dropped 9.5%, manufacturing, which declined 2.6% and natural resources, mining and construction, which fell 2.1% over the past year.

Collier County gained the most employment from government, up 6.6%, and leisure and hospitality, up 4.6%. Other growing sources of jobs were in wholesale trade, up 3.23%, and service producing jobs, up 2.3%. By contrast, transportation, warehouse and utilities jobs decreased 11.1% for the one year period ended in May.

The metro area of Sarasota, Bradenton and Venice gained the most jobs in information, up 4.7%, education and health services, up 4.9%, and other service related jobs, up 5.26%. Transportation, warehouse and utilities employment declined 5.26%, and natural resources, mining and construction fell 1.67%.

The Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater metro employment statistics showed that education and health services, leisure and hospitality and other services jobs grew 2.7%, 2.3% and 5.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, construction employment declined 1.6%, manufacturing of durable goods decreased 3.9% and transportation, warehousing and utilities fell by 3.5%.

Aysegul Timur, Ph.D., is an associate professor of business administration at the Kenneth Oscar Johnson School of Business at Hodges University in Naples. Dr. Timur is also a management, economics and statistics consultant and a corporate trainer. She can be reached at 239-513-1122 or [email protected]. Student Nicole Shelton also contributed to this report.

AT A GLANCE

UNEMPLOYMENT

The jobless rate rose slightly in many counties in May 2007, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation. Only Hillsborough County saw its unemployment rate remain the same from the last year. Its jobless rate also decreased from April to May 2007. By comparison, the national unemployment rate was also unchanged at 4.5% in May. Florida's rate has been below the national average since 2002 and has had the lowest unemployment rate out of the 10 most populous states. The top table shows the percentage of unemployment for May of each year. The bottom table measures unemployment by month in 2007.

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Hillsborough 3.8% 5.4% 5.3% 4.4% 3.7% 3.2% 3.2%

Pinellas 3.8 5.5 5.3 4.3 3.7 3.1 3.0

Manatee 3.3 4.5 4.5 3.9 3.3 2.7 3.1

Sarasota 3.2 4.5 4.4 3.8 3.2 2.7 3.1

Charlotte 3.7 5.1 5.2 4.6 4.0 3.2 4.0

Lee 3.1 4.6 4.6 3.8 3.2 2.7 3.4

Collier 3.1 4.1 4.5 3.8 3.1 2.6 2.9

Jan. Feb. March April May

Hillsborough 3.6% 3.3% 3.3% 3.3% 3.2%

Pinellas 3.3 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.0

Manatee 3.3 3.0 3.1 3.1 3.1

Sarasota 3.4 3.0 3.1 3.3 3.1

Charlotte 4.0 3.8 3.8 3.9 4.0

Lee 3.3 3.2 3.2 3.3 3.4

Collier 3.0 2.8 2.8 2.7 2.9

Source: U.S. Department of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics