Certain sectors of the economy are rebounding and jobs are following. Here’s an update on hotel and restaurant jobs in South Florida:
If you’re looking for work in South Florida, try hotels and restaurants.
Broward and Miami-Dade counties now have more people employed in lodging and food service than they did before the recession, and Palm Beach County is catching up to its former peak. Broward alone added 3,800 hotel and restaurant jobs in October from a year earlier, up 5.9 percent, state data show.
The jobs are growing because of record tourism in South Florida, as the U.S. economy recovers and visitors arrive from across the country and from Canada, Europe and Latin America. Broward set a new tourism peak for the 12 months ending Sept. 30: 11 million overnight visitors who spent $9 billion, the county’s travel bureau said. Tourism experts expect continued growth at least through 2012.
The job trend holds statewide, with hospitality leading Florida’s job recovery. Hotels and restaurants employed 31,700 more people this October than last, up by 4.4 percent to a new state record, data show.
Some new employees are coming from other fields, where work is less plentiful, including construction.
This is good news, as strong sectors should rebound first. South Florida is a mecca for tourists, so as the tourists come back, signaling a return to normalcy, then we see these hospitality jobs come back. Tourists and hospitality workers then spend money, fueling a broader recovery in the region.
