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Highlands Today

Local Jobseekers Face A Difficult Market

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Connie Knapp of Sebring submits a resume for a customer service position Wednesday at the Heartland Workforce in Sebring. Knapp owned a business but had to close because of increasing overhead and slow economy.

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: March 19, 2008

SEBRING — A county custodian barely earns more than $9 an hour. They scrub toilets, mop floors, haul trash, clean, clean, clean... It might not be a first choice for a career, yet county human resources director John Minor said that 61 job-seekers applied for the spot before it was filled in February.

Meanwhile, Branch Manager Julie Diaz-Nichols of the Sunshine Staffing temporary employment office in Sebring estimated a 20 percent increase in the number of people coming through her doors.

At the Heartland Workforce One-Stop Career Center, Connie Knapp spent her third day working part-time there after closing her furniture business in December, due to "rising overhead" from her rent going up. She suggested she wasn't alone as she brought up the store closings in downtown Sebring.

The three scenarios are part of a dim portrait of Highlands County's construction and real estate sectors, both swooning in the current economic downturn as the county's unemployment rate climbed to 5.3 percent last month. That's more than a percent higher than February 2007.

"The work has slowed down so they're looking for something to do," Diaz-Nichols said, describing the heavier foot traffic at her office.

The current downswing is just the beginning. According to the data from the Heartland Workforce, Highlands, Hardee and Desoto counties will be shedding even more construction jobs by 2015. While nearly every profession was projected to grow by then, excavators, electricians, roofers and masons were expected to actually decline in number for the long term.

The statistics "do not bode well" for the industry, said David Mason of the Heartland Workforce.

Most of the extra people seeking temporary employment were laborers once employed by contractors. Diaz-Nichols said her office does not assign applicants to construction work, so many of those laborers are instead given other manual labor jobs or clerical work.

Minor said that some of those laborers also flock to county jobs because they are considered more stable while the economy is declining, even if they pay lower wages. That, he said, was why he had 45 applications for a groundskeeper job and more than 120 applications for a janitorial position this year.

"Right now we're having good responses to all of our ads," Minor said. "A while ago, it was hard to pull even 10 people who wanted to be a custodian."

Broader Picture
Mason said that mining, manufacturing and the finance sector– which includes real estate agents – have all been in decline in the region.

Historically, however, unemployment rates have been dropping. It stood well over 10 percent a decade ago and was almost 15 percent in 1992.

As everything is slowing down, Knapp is just starting to look for a new job. After a slow summer, the former owner of a furniture store at Fairmount Square said she's looking to either find an office or retail job rather than starting her own business.

She said she was hopeful, but when asked what she thought about her prospects in the current economy, she became blunt.

"Do you watch the six o'clock news?" she said. "This is the worst it has ever been in the job market since I was in the job market."

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