Upward Trend for Employment

It is believed that 2012 could be a great year for employment, especially if the hospitality and leisure sectors are an indication of what is to come during this New Year. Seminole County residents may finally find the employment that they have been searching for, for such a long time.

Unemployment data and statistics from Workforce Central Florida reported that the leisure and hospitality industry actually gained more than 7,000 jobs over the last year. Most of those jobs were within the Orland, Kissimmee, and Sanford area. The data and statistical information came from research done on the months of November 2010 through November 2011. This particular sector, which also includes entertainment, recreation, drinking spots, hotels, and food services, has produced the most jobs in these three areas of Florida over the year. The leisure and hospitality sector has even beat out education services, health services, and transportation and utilities, both of which have also seen quite a rise over the year.

With more jobs being added, more people are spending money and that money is often being spent in the leisure and hospitality area. In fact, Town House restaurant owner, Joshua Miller, has said, “The last few weeks, we have done really well.” His family has owned the restaurant for more than twelve years. He also says, “But, I think we’ll see it taper off now until we get to Mother’s Day.”

The statistics are definitely showing a rise in employment in the different areas of Florida. The metro area has even gained about 3.7 percent of jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector within the past year. These are numbers that are actually much higher than the average for the state. From January 2010 until now, Florida has already gained 120,000 jobs along with 134,800 private sector jobs as well. This information comes from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, commonly referred to as the DEO.

The Seminole County Commissioner, Bob Dallari, has said, “There has been a lot of activity going on in 2011.” He also says, “We had a lot of activity in the last quarter; it was very strong and we feel like it’s going to continue on into 2012.”

Dallari predicts that there will be a growth of high paying jobs within the next year. He also predicts that many of these jobs will be pharmaceutical jobs, banking jobs, and financial services. On the other hand, the WCF statistics are reflecting a trend that shows financial jobs will actually decline within the year.

Dallari says, “The financial services sector is located in Seminole County and they recruit heavily from UCF.”  He also says, “UCF is close by [geographically], and they are the primary target to recruit.”