UNEVEN JOB GROWTH
I was in Orlando Friday and Saturday, speaking at a business conference, and read the Orlando Sentinel's coverage of the latest job figures. This passage jumped out:
In Orlando, the latest numbers are old news because the area has long resisted the national trend and instead has regularly produced jobs.
Take Denise Santiago and her husband, Erick Brazil. The couple came to Orlando from New York in December, and within weeks of starting their searches, both had landed jobs.
"It all happened so fast," said Santiago, a registered medical assistant. She had her pick of jobs in the health-care industry and chose Ob & Gyn Specialists in Winter Park. "I'd fax my resume to a company, and by the end of the day, they'd call me back," she said.
Brazil interviewed at Hughes Supply on a Thursday and started work the next Monday.
Indeed, the state of Florida, with Orlando playing a key role, has been one of the few bright spots during the past year when it comes to job creation.
Consider one staggering contrast: Florida added 131,400 non-agricultural jobs in the 12 months that ended in February, the most recent month for which state numbers are available. During that same period, the United States as a whole generated 209,000, according to revised figures released Friday.
Orlando is the America you rarely see on TV (notwithstanding Disney ads): postindustrial and booming, with new houses its broad middle class can afford. The Sentinel's website even lists "Growth" as a separate category under its News heading. Of course, with "growth" news comes anti-growth backlash, which can turn you into California.