Health care and teaching offer opportunities as construction and manufacturing suffer.
February 24, 2008
If you are among the unemployed in Hernando County, you had more company in 2007.
In December, the unemployment rate peaked at 6.2 percent, compared with a healthy 4.1 percent the year before.
Those numbers are based on a work force of 62,325. Of those, 58,203 were working. The unemployed numbered 4,122 - those receiving benefits. Those whose benefits have run out are not counted.
The crunch is not just local, said Ken Russ, vice president of business support for the Pasco Hernando Jobs and Education Partnership. Pasco County, where some Hernando residents commute to work, showed a 5.5 percent unemployment rate in December.
"These numbers are regionwide," Russ said.
"Downsizing in the construction field, the housing market, had a lot to do with that," he said. "But commercial construction, we still see a lot of that.
"Manufacturing, regionwide, due to the trickle-down economy for a number of different reasons" is hurting.
Increased fuel costs also is part of the mix. It costs more to ship materials, Russ said, affecting businesses across the board, meaning layoffs. But the outlook is brighter, Russ said.
"Hiring usually picks up in January as employers set plans for the coming year," he said. "We've already seen a lot of traffic for 2008. We've seen about 8,000 to 9,000 per month at the one-stop Career Centrals in Hernando and Pasco counties."
On the plus side of employment, the health care field is "growing by leaps and bounds," Russ said, adding: "Pick your choice." He mentioned licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants and registered nurses as being in demand.
Opportunities also are begging in education for teachers in public schools. There's a network for placement of unemployed professionals to discuss labor market information for their particular field.
"We place quite a few of these people," Russ said of the program, which was launched in 2006.
Russ is reluctant to forecast the 2008 job market.
"From data we get, anything changes," he said.
"It has to go through its cycles. There's a hint of a new recession, but nobody's confirmed it. We still see a lot of demand in service-oriented areas, education and the health care field. Like anything else, it will probably change.
"I'm optimistic it's going to be a change for the better."
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