Floridas unemployment rate is currently outpacing the national average, prompting local business owners in Tallahassee to adapt to a challenging job market.
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Tallahassee businesses adapt to hiring challenges as Florida unemployment outpaces the national average
According to recently released job data from Florida Commerce, the states unemployment rate stood at 4.6% in February, compared to the national rate of 4.4%.
Locally, the unemployment rate for Leon County was 4.9% and 5% for Tallahassee in February.
Shara Bankston, Owner of Paper Fox Coffee, says hiring has been a mixed experience.
“It started off bumpy, but it got better as we near the end of the semester. Students started looking for jobs,” Bankston said.
Bankston says the real challenge is not a lack of jobs but keeping employees.
“Biggest challenge is usually just people are moving out of town, she said. Particularly, in a coffee shop, so with my older employees, they’re looking for a full-time job with benefits, and then for my youngers, they’re just looking to move on and start with a career, which I understand.
She says finding workers with the skills needed for the position is becoming difficult, too.
Now, we can train on how to make the drink; that ability to interact with customers is almost an innate ability, so that’s what we look for the most, Bankston said.
In Tallahassee, the labor force is about 209,000 people, which includes everyone who is currently working or looking for a job.
Despite the local unemployment numbers, Employ Florida shows there were still more than 6,000 job openings in Tallahassee as of Tuesday.
The Office of Economic Vitality said that while local unemployment rates typically move with the state’s, the area does not feel as much of an impact because stability comes from jobs in state government and at universities.
Those sectors make up about 25% of employment in the area.
Bankston is trying to make her small business more competitive to match this trend.
“Based on my experience from six weeks ago to the last couple of weeks when I’ve had some success, I did change the starting pay, she said.
Average weekly earnings in the private sector were up about 17% from February, according to data from the Office of Economic Vitality.
That is the hardest part, actually, is to balance that because I want to be fair to my employees, but I also want to keep my doors open, so I am looking at a small price increase on some of my drinks and just like look to cut costs where I can,” Bankston said.
Even though turnover is at a record high for Paper Fox, Bankston is trying to stay optimistic about the future of the job market.
Data from Florida Commerce predicts the number of job openings will grow by 8,600 by 2033.
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