ORLANDO, Fla. — Touting 15 months of job growth, Florida leaders say the Sunshine State is on an upswing.

Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announced private-sector employers added more than 63,900 jobs in July; 10,000 of which were in the Orlando region.

While the data does not reveal whether these are newly-created jobs or a thaw of furloughed positions, there is no overlooking the optimistic portrait the state paints about jobs.

But there remains uncertainty of when Florida’s workforce will again match levels seen before the pandemic.

“It’s hard to pinpoint an exact time frame, but we are moving closer to that every month,” said Adrienne Johnston, Florida DEO’s chief economist. “There’s a lot of demand out there — employers are trying to hire, they have a lot of job openings. We saw record number of online job ads.”

Johnston said job growth is being seen across the board in all industries in Florida.

The state’s primary industry is hospitality and tourism, which is often seen as being filled with jobs at or near minimum wage.

Not as advertised

“Before the pandemic, business from the convention center was phenomenal,” Mindy Weiss said. “We got all of the hotels, all of the tourists, the convention center itself, business was phenomenal.”

Weiss, who has worked for years as a server, said she’s yet to recover from the state’s initial shutdown of bars and restaurants in the spring of 2020.

“I’d make anywhere from $200 to $350 without house pay, and when I went back after, I was lucky to maybe make $40,” Weiss said.

She and her husband were eventually both laid off from their restaurant jobs.

They now spend their days trying to find a job doing the same work — ones that pay enough to make ends meet.

Weiss said the roles and hours just aren’t there, even as business owners say they’re struggling to find workers.

Weiss said she often sees the same job postings repeatedly and has applied repeatedly to no avail.

“Manager said we’re not hiring right now, we’re just collecting applications, and he did that with three other people,” Weiss said about one restaurant she inquired at in Orlando.

As Weiss scrolls through a seemingly endless list of jobs in the area, she’s enticed by what appear to be high-paying jobs.

But there’s a catch, she said.

“Total bait and switch,” Weiss said. “The ad says $14 to $18 an hour, but then you’re told you don’t really start off with that, we start you at $9.50 and you have to work your way up to $14 an hour.”

Working years as a server, Weiss now spends her days filling out one application after the next.

Her family, like many, has tapped out their savings to survive. They’re now relying on extended family to get by.

“We’re just making it,” Weiss said. “Just making it.”

More than 2.5 million Floridians, like Weiss and her husband, received unemployment benefits during the worst of the pandemic. With Florida providing up to $275 per week for a maximum of 12 weeks, most have long run out of benefits, relying on the few hundred dollars now provided per month in federal benefits. However, those federal programs will end September 4.

Asked why it is a challenge for her to find another serving job, Weiss was quick to reply: “Age is one of those challenges.”

'I want a full-time job and I'll figure the rest out later'

She’s not alone in that thinking.

Marty Fuchs, a 30+ year veteran in the audio-visual industry, believes older workers are being quietly overlooked.

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows July 2021’s unemployment rate for those age 55+ is at 4.4%, the lowest in a year. It’s also far lower than other, younger age groups. Part of that is believed to be influenced in part by nearly 2 million Americans who retired early, according to a report released by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis.

“I don’t even look at salary anymore, I want a full-time job and I’ll figure the rest out later,” Fuchs said as he was browsing job ads online.

The veteran special events project manager keeps a detailed list of jobs he’s applied to.

They include a variety of management-related roles, not just in events and conventions, but in hotels, restaurants, and car rentals, among others.

“I haven’t limited myself just to Florida, if I had to relocate I absolutely would,” Fuchs said.

Fuchs is not alone, either.

It’s not scientific, but U-Haul tracks one-way rentals and found in 2020 that there was a 2% increase in the number of people moving to Florida.

However, U-Haul also found, by tracking one-way rentals, that there was a 4% increase in the number of people moving out of Florida in 2020 compared to 2019.

“Despite the larger rise in departures, arrivals still accounted for nearly 50.2% of all one-way U-Haul traffic in Florida during 2020 to make it the Number 3 state for netting DIY movers,” U-Haul said in a statement.

“You’ll find 90% of the people in my industry would much rather be working than sitting around,” Fuchs said. “We like what we do.”

Data: No worker surge after federal unemployment benefits ended

There is no defined data that pinpoints exactly why employers nationally are struggling to hire workers.

There have been illustrations of migrations geographically and within the workforce.

In Central Florida, enrollment in Valencia College’s workforce training program doubled during the pandemic, with older workers looking to transition with new skills to entirely new industries.

Some have pointed out individuals are leaving traditionally low-wage jobs behind for industries that pay more. Florida’s current minimum wage is $8.65 per hour (non tipped) but will gradually increase to $15 per hour by the year 2026 as part of a voter-approved amendment.

Major employers in Central Florida including Walt Disney World, Universal, Target, and others are already moving to $15 per hour, years ahead of the state mandate.

Companies have also had to become more competitive with pay and benefits. Many continue to offer a variety of signing bonuses and other perks to lure in new workers.

State leaders in Florida, and elsewhere, predicted a surge of people returning to the workforce as they moved to eliminate distribution of extended federal unemployment benefits.

Florida is one of 26 states to end benefits, and one of nearly a dozen states now entangled in lawsuits over it.

New data, however, shows ending those benefits has had little impact on job growth in states, illustrating that there are other pressures on families and workers beyond just paychecks.

With Florida still seeing record COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, some workers fear they’re putting their health at risk, or have no other childcare options. 

Ending benefits came as business leaders complained they could not find enough workers and applicants were “ghosting” them. Job seekers have made similar complaints, saying employers are not always responding to applications.

The job search struggle is complicated, Weiss said, but all she and others are looking for an opportunity to get back to work and to make end’s meet.

“We did not ask for this to happen,” Weiss said. “I had a very good job, a very good paying job before the pandemic started. I did not ask for this.”

Job search resources

Your local CareerSource Florida office can provide a variety of free job search resources.

This includes access to resume building, job leads, interviews, and grants for transitional workforce skills training.

AARP also provides a variety of programs and assistance opportunities for older workers.