Forbes.com reports on a new survey of the least optimistic U.S. regions for summertime jobs, and Florida fares the worst for expected summer job growth.
Even though the U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May, a number of parts of the country still struggle to stay upbeat about the job market.
In a study of 18,000 businesses in more than 100 metropolitan areas, conducted by employment agency ManpowerGroup comes a picture of parts of the country that will (and will not) hire for the summer.
In the top ten “Worst Cities for Summer Jobs” the Tampa Bay area ranked near the top, with only Cape Coral-Fort Myers performing worse. In fact, the four “worst” cities for summer hiring all were in Florida.
Final calculations came from the percentage of employers stating they will hire for the summer, and subtracting the amount of those businesses cutting back on summer jobs.
The product was not good news for the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater region.
The Tampa Bay area had overall hiring optimism of a paltry one percent. Eleven percent of businesses want to increase hiring, while ten percent would reduce their workforce.
Seventy-five percent would have no change in staffing.
On the other hand, when looking a little more to the south, the job confidence starts to change, but for the worse.
Although Sarasota was a little more positive about jobs than Tampa Bay, Fort Meyers is the region sitting at rock bottom in the nation. The Cape Coral/Fort Meyers metro region reported a perfectly flat overall hiring outlook—13 percent will hire, and the same number will cut back. That makes the region dead last of all metro regions surveyed. Nearly three-quarters of businesses in the area have no plans to change hiring—no hiring or firing.
According to the Forbes story, there has been an upward nationwide trend in summertime hiring confidence, with employment confidence on the rise since 2010. However, in the past few months, a majority of employers have become increasingly cautious about summer hiring.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Des Moines-West Des Moines, Iowa metro area. They show a generally positive job outlook of 26 percent for summer 2013. Twenty-eight percent of employers in Des Moines will increase hiring, with only two percent cutting back on staff.
Nationally, 22 percent of employers will hire more for the summer, and only six percent will reduce hiring—a net positive employment number of sixteen percent.
You can see the entire list of “The Best and Worst Cities for Jobs This Summer” at www.forbes.com.
