Florida’s Growth Is Outrunning Its Workforce

The state is booming right now. The number of people flocking to the Sunshine State each year has risen dramatically. We’re seeing massive growth in residential areas, plus the construction of large shopping complexes and hotels. With all the positive energy around these booming projects, a serious challenge the state faces is slowly creeping up to block its rapid growth.

The basic scenario is simple: Florida is growing fast, and it needs a workforce to develop all of these new buildings, services, etc. In other words, growth is outrunning the existing workforce.

From Miami to Orlando and the growing Gulf Coast region, the demand for infrastructure, housing, commercial space, and services of all kinds is growing at breakneck speed, even as the construction, local and state government projects needed to meet it are slowing to a crawl, resulting in exorbitant costs and great frustration for involved organizations and their employees.

The Reality of the Labor Shortage in Key Sectors

Another area in which the state is struggling to keep up with demand is in certain industries that require large workforces to service visitors. These include construction, hospitality, healthcare, and logistics. While much of the growth has been attributed to the influx of hundreds of new residents to the state on a daily basis, immediate needs for housing, new schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure are pressing. Meanwhile, contractors and developers are bidding on and trying to staff large numbers of projects for which they have not yet had a chance to assemble an adequate workforce to complete them.

Many of the regions being targeted by new developments and industries fall into the definition of a regional economic powerhouse, and the Tampa Bay area is one of the clearest examples along Florida’s Gulf Coast. Construction and light industrial operations are expanding alongside the region’s population growth, but the local workforce hasn’t kept pace. Companies seeking skilled trades staffing in Tampa Bay to support their high volume of large construction projects are struggling to find qualified candidates locally.

Once the local candidate pool dries up, projects grind to a standstill. It’s exhausting.

Debate has surfaced in recent years over whether Florida’s workforce is shrinking or merely migrating to other parts of the country for better-paying jobs and better working conditions. Much of this comes back to the housing affordability issues now facing many parts of the Sunshine State, which affect industries across the board, including hospitality, long-term care, and industrial services. A lack of affordable housing in growing locations often results in high turnover, as employers struggle to attract and retain workers from outside the area to build and support their businesses there.

Why Traditional Recruitment Methods Are Falling Short

Companies are still using traditional hiring strategies such as local job postings, word-of-mouth referrals, and generic job advertisements in newspapers and online.

Workers today are looking for competitive wages, flexible work arrangements, a safe work environment, and opportunities for growth and development. This is what many workers today expect from employers, and that is what employers should be offering their employees.

Many skilled, experienced workers have reached retirement age and are leaving the workforce in a slew of industries, including technical, specialized fields as well as physically demanding ones. Meanwhile, the newer generation of potential employees is looking for work that may offer different types of satisfaction and will require novel recruitment methods to win them over to join a given company’s workforce. The point is that without substantial training programs and new ways to reach potential employees to fill vacant jobs and staff expanding operations of all types in the near future, the rate at which workers leave the workforce will far exceed the rate at which new workers enter it.

What good are jobs listed on local job boards, in vain company ads, and heralded openings that attract no applicants, when employers are trying to build the infrastructure of tomorrow with hiring methods of the past?

So employers are beginning to realize that merely looking for candidates in a local market can be a huge limitation. Companies can now reach far and wide to seek out the best candidates, build relationships with providers of specialized Workforce Solutions, and invest in human capital for long-term retention.

Long-Term Impacts on Florida’s Economic Future

If left to continue, the existing situation risks significant consequences for Florida as a whole. At a basic level, if labor costs are to remain high and project delays continue, then costs are going to pass through to businesses and end consumers of construction services – even in those instances where that construction is of housing. Moreover, as the affordable housing crisis worsens in terms of new supply, delays in delivering existing public infrastructure will cause understandable frustration.

What does this mean for Florida’s long-term economic well-being?

Investors and large companies are also hesitant to move to Florida because of the lack of workers. It takes a lot of people to run a successful economy and businesses. In order to sustain growth, there must be enough workers in all industries to support growth and development.

It takes real people on the ground.

Creating a healthy workforce requires collaboration between numerous stakeholders, including:

• Educational institutions
• State policymakers
• Regional business leaders
• Modern staffing partners

They meet clients’ immediate needs with qualified individuals from their networks.

Strategies for Navigating the Workforce Deficit

In order to keep pace, businesses must shift from a reactive hiring model to a proactive workforce management model. The days of simply posting a job ad and waiting for the right applicants to come in are over.

Invest in Upskilling and Apprenticeships

Training existing employees is a cost-effective way to build your employee base. Internal training can lead to more loyal employees and help build skills that your organization specifically needs. Partnering with local trade schools and community colleges to develop customized training programs can also provide a steady supply of newly trained employees with the specific skills your organization needs.

Leverage Specialized Staffing Partners

Many specialized staffing agencies also have broad networks and industry expertise to place qualified employees quickly. These agencies use a contingent labor strategy that lets companies build and scale quickly on a project-by-project basis without incurring long-term overhead to employ workers temporarily.

Improve Worker Retention

In order to keep the best employees at your organization, you must provide them with the best opportunity to succeed at a job for which they were hired to do in the first place by offering them competitive pay, excellent benefits, and the chance to work in a fun and well-run workplace, to name a few.

Embrace Technology and Automation

Automated technology cannot replace all skilled human labor; however, utilizing up to date project management systems, labor-saving machinery, and other advanced technologies will enable employees to work more productively and complete work in a shorter amount of time.

Looking Ahead

While Florida is undoubtedly on the way up, it is important for industry leaders to recognize the challenges currently confronting workforce supply to assist in the state’s future growth. Addressing current labor challenges through innovative recruitment methods, training of new talent, and effective use of a specialized workforce solutions firm will enable organizations to thrive in this new economy and support future growth of the state.