F lo r i d a S umma r y
The Education and Health Services sector in Florida, inoculated from the recession by the state’s population structure skewed toward older residents, coupled with the passage Affordable Care Act, has kept demand for health services growing through the recession, and with it, employment in the sector. The Education and Health Services sector added jobs throughout the recession (average job growth from 2007 to 2011 was 2.0%) and continues to do so today. This was the only sector of Florida’s economy to grow in the recession and is expected to continue to grow through the end of 2018 and well beyond. During 2015-2018, employment in this sector is expected to expand at an average rate of 2.7%. The Affordable Care Act’s impact on healthcare in the face of implementation of law’s employer mandates in 2015 and 2016 continues to cast a pall of uncertainty over this sector in Florida. Healthcare providers in Florida can only feel their way along, slowly moving through the uncertainty still surrounding the law five years after its passage.
The projected numbers of previously uninsured people who would acquire health insurance as a result of the law have not been as high as the administration had predicted, but the number of insured has increased as a result. This expansion of coverage, coupled with the aging of our already older-thanaverage population (that is continuing to grow with the influx on a daily basis of new Baby Boomer retirees), ensures that the demand for health services in Florida should remain strong well into the future. This demand will continue to drive job growth in the Health and Education sector through the end of 2018 and well beyond. Manufacturing employment expanded in Florida at an average rate of 2.5% in 2014, accelerating from 1.6% growth in 2013. However, as 2014 wound down, economic growth eased as both the domestic and global economic environments weakened significantly and the U.S. dollar began an ongoing period of strengthening. The weakening of economic expansions abroad, including a slowdown in China, struggles in Europe, and a significant recession in Brazil were coupled by a rapid appreciation of the U.S. dollar. Exports have suffered from the combination of slower income growth abroad and higher prices of American goods and services for foreigners whose currencies depreciated against our own. These developments will weigh heavily on the rate of job growth in the manufacturing sector beyond 2014. After gaining some momentum in 2014, manufacturing employment growth in Florida is expected to relinquish that momentum over the forecast horizon. We are looking at job growth of just 1.3% in manufacturing for 2015, followed by another year of similar job growth in 2016, when manufacturing employment will expand at a rate of 1.4%. Manufacturing job creation is expected to continue to remain 12
Florida & Metro Forecast - September 2015
paltry in 2017 and 2018 when growth will be 0.9% and 0.7%, respectively. Average annual job growth during 2015-2018 will be 1.1%.
The State & Local Government sector in Florida is experiencing improved revenue streams as sales tax revenue rises and, as housing prices continue to climb, property tax revenue rises as well. The budgetary crisis in Florida impacted governments at all levels in Florida and governments were forced to make cuts to employment through large-scale layoffs, as transpired in Tallahassee, or through attrition in local governments. Forced austerity led to job losses in this sector that persisted for six years through 2014. In 2015, job losses in the State and Local Government sector will end, but growth this year will be just slightly positive. Growth will remain positive going forward, averaging 0.9% during 2015-2018. As Florida’s population and economy continue to grow, the demand for state and local government services will grow, and employment growth in state and local government will be a necessary part of the solution to meet the demands of Florida’s growing economy. The memory of painful budget shortfalls in the wake of the housing bubble and recession will dampen job growth in the sector.
The outlook for Federal Government employment growth in Florida, on the other hand, continues to be negative, with the exception of a brief uptick in 2015 through the end of our 2018 forecast horizon. Any solution to our federal deficit and debt problems will require more revenue, but ultimately cuts in discretionary federal spending will be needed as entitlement programs swell, consuming a growing share of revenue. As the Federal Reserve embarks on a cycle of interest rate hikes at the end of 2015 or increasing likely in 2016, the burden of servicing a national debt that is in excess of $18.3 trillion will consume a larger share of federal tax revenue. The pain of running four years of trillion-dollar deficits that has for years been dulled by the historically low interest rates will increase along with interest rates by the Fed. This increasing share of federal tax revenue going toward entitlements and debt service will cause the already smaller portion of federal tax revenue that goes toward discretionary spending to get even smaller. It will be 2020 before the decennial census drives the next expansion in Federal Government employment in Florida. Employment in this sector will contract at an average rate of -0.3% during 2015-2018.
UNEM P LOYM ENT The unemployment rate in Florida has fallen significantly from its peak, standing at 5.3% as of August 2015. After spending many years well above the national rate