An increase in construction lay-offs due to a sharp decrease in home sales is overwhelming the county’s food banks with hungry patrons.
CUB Director Nola Gravius said the normally steady stream of donations is running dry simply because the food is spread so thin among the families, many of whom are subcontractors recently laid off or out of work. Daystar Life Center is experiencing the same influx.
“The number of new people already surpassed last year’s number,” said Daystar Director Rich Meyer. “We’ve cut back on the amount of money we’ve been giving out.”
New statistics released Friday from the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation (AWI) placed the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for June at 3.5 percent, up .01 percent from May, but still well under the national rate of 4.5 percent.
“The soft housing market is certainly having an effect on our construction employment,” said AWI Director Monesia T. Brown.
According to Friday’s report, “Construction employment, reacting to declines in the housing market, lost 18,000 jobs over the year (-2.8 percent). It was the first time since 1992 that the state has experienced four consecutive months of over-the-year declines in construction jobs.”
Plummeting sales of new homes in the county have put builders and realtors in dire straits. Gravius said that then boils down to the workers building the homes, sub-contractors and so on.
“It gets to be a big ball and, as it goes down the hill, it gets bigger,” she said, adding that there has been an increase in homeless people needing aid due to job losses and layoffs.
Meyer said a man came to him seeking aid after being laid off by area builders. He had recently purchased a new home; now he has no income.
“Our economy is not progressing into the next century,” he said. “Building is down to zero.”
Citrus County’s unemployment rate of 4.6 percent for June was up .9 percent from May’s rate and held the number 10 spot of 67 in highest unemployment rates by county. Despite what seems to be a growing problem, Citrus County Builders Association President Ron Lieberman is hopeful that the situation is temporary.
“I’m going to say that things are down 70 percent from where they were in 2005. It’s certainly more than half,” said Lieberman. “Hopefully it’s bottomed out and prices have dropped. We’re thinking that it’s becoming a good time to buy again, and that will start getting people in the market and the jobs will come back.”
Still, even if sales begin to increase, the gap between the sale of a home and its construction doesn’t bode well for the newly needy.
“As sales come back it takes four to six months to maybe a year to get construction going,” Lieberman said, noting that many of the homes and commercial construction that came up this year came from plans made in 2005 and 2006. “As the year goes on more people will be losing their jobs, and it’s not reflective of the market.”
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