Though Hernando County's unemployment rate has edged downward, 2,700 residents will be lacking on Labor Day.
By JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published August 31, 2003
Delilah Gillis used to anticipate the weekly combing of the Sunday classified ads with a sense of excitement, clutching a dream of an interesting 9-to-5 workplace and an occasional Red Lobster dinner.
Nine months and hundreds of resumes later, the unemployed Spring Hill medical records clerk turns the inky pages with a sigh and an occasional tear.
She has applied to telemarket, wait tables and hawk newspapers in the street.
She recently asked the electric company to wait a few more weeks for its payment, because her checking account had dwindled to a mere $17.
Although steady high unemployment and stagnant job growth plague communities nationwide, most of Hernando County's labor force has enjoyed a more stable job market. The county's unemployment rate has edged downward slightly over the past year and is better than the nation's. The Hernando County unemployment average for the past seven months was about 5.1 percent.
However, the number of unemployed residents during the first seven months of 2003, although about 100 fewer than last year, is still among the county's highest in nearly nine years.
For about 2,700 unemployed residents, Labor Day 2003 will be a painful reminder of what they lack.
"If I would have known about the job market here, I wouldn't have moved to Spring Hill," said Gillis, who in December left a 25-year career at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., to be closer to family in Spring Hill. Everyone told her her experience in medical records would be invaluable in Hernando County, where jobs in the medical industry are abundant.
Over the last decade, Hernando County's labor force has grown by about 32 percent, to some 51,600 workers. But more laborers translate into more people looking for jobs when unemployment rates rise.
Prior to 2002, the last time more than 2,500 Hernando County residents were jobless was in 1994, when the county unemployment rate hit 6.8 percent.
Such numbers keep the county's job center staff quite busy. On a stormy Thursday afternoon, a slow day, Gillis was one of about a few dozen unemployed residents seeking help with their job searches. And many, like Gillis, were older, educated and experienced.
"You eek out a living, you really do," said Freda Gima, 56, of Spring Hill, who was looking for full-time accounting jobs Thursday at Career Central.
Three years ago, the tax accountant and her husband left Cleveland, where she worked 30 years as an accountant for American Greeting Card, from which she will receive a pension in four years. Now she works from January through April for H&R Block during tax season and saves up while she searches for a job from May through December.
"With my education and experience, I really expected to get a job when I came here," Gima said.
Nationwide, most major economic signs are starting to point upward again, except employment. The national unemployment rate fell slightly in July to 6.2 percent from its nine-year high in June of 6.4 percent. But economists have attributed the decrease to people giving up and dropping out of the labor force, rather than new job creation.
In Florida, the labor market is a somewhat rosier story.
Florida had the largest jump in new jobs from July 2002 to July 2003, compared to any other state, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The June 2003 unemployment rate was 5.3 percent in Florida.
Despite optimistic reports, Florida's average wages remain lower than the national average, according to an academic report released last week by Bruce Nissen, a labor professor at Florida International University.
Even though the economy recently created more higher-paying jobs in local government, social services and construction, Florida's economy still relies heavily on tourism and service-sector jobs, which pulls down the state's average wages.
"From a working person's point of view, and the unemployed, it's not a good job market," said Nissen, who has released an annual report on Florida's labor market each Labor Day for five years. "If all we're creating is low-paying, no-benefits, dead-end kinds of jobs, it's not a pretty picture for Florida."
Hernando County's average wages in 2001 were $24,675 a year, or about two-thirds the national average. Hernando ranked 43rd highest of the state's 67 counties.
Part of Hernando's job growth has come from service-sector and retail jobs, as chains such as Lowe's, Home Depot and Wal-Mart have opened local stores. Wal-Mart is set to take over the title of county's largest employer, once the new Sam's Club opens on State Road 50.
But Hernando does offer a number of higher-paying jobs, said David Hamilton, contracts director for the Pasco-Hernando Jobs & Education Partnership board.
While Hamilton pointed to some areas of continued weakness, he said that health care and home building are quite strong.
"Hernando County certainly hasn't been hurt as much as the economies of the industrial states, and it's still within (range) of the Tampa Bay metropolitan area," he said.
As for the unemployed whose job searches have dragged on for months, Hamilton suggested they might try seeking jobs they are overqualified for, or try for jobs beyond what they have been trained for.
Some of the job-seekers said they would be willing to take whatever they can get, but that nothing seems to be available.
Lyn Skokowski, 53, has found nothing since she lost her job managing the cafe at the Spring Hill Kmart store, which closed in March.
"It's kind of depressing," said Skokowski, who is certified as a food manager and has begun to lose hope that she will find something that matches her Kmart paycheck of $9.20 an hour.
Whenever she drives by the vacant store on U.S. 19, she shakes her head.
"I hope I find something," Skokowski said, "before my unemployment runs out."
- Jennifer Liberto can be reached at 848-1434. Send e-mail to liberto@sptimes.com
