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That's the conclusion of a survey by the Economic Development Council, but it may not be a complete picture of how the county is faring.
By JENNIFER GOLDBLATT
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 8, 2001
DADE CITY -- Pasco businesses haven't seen the massive layoffs that have plagued other areas since Sept. 11 because the county revolves around many small employers instead of one major one, and because Pasco typically lags behind nationwide economic trends.
But in some ways, the impact of the terrorist attacks on Pasco's business community do reflect what's happening nationwide: Travel-related businesses saw drops in sales, and nonprofits saw donations diverted to relief funds for the attack's victims.
Those are the conclusions of a survey Pasco's Economic Development Council conducted last month, which gauged how the attacks affected sales and hiring plans.
The EDC sent the survey to 1,800 Pasco businesses, consisting of EDC members and members of three chambers of commerce. Of those, 215 companies and nonprofits responded.
"We're just not going to get hit as hard as Orlando or the rest of the U.S.," said Mary Jane Stanley, the EDC's executive director. She helped present the survey to 30 city and business leaders who gathered for the EDC's quarterly meeting at the Pasco Beverage plant in Dade City on Wednesday morning.
"We're not seeing huge layoffs."
John Walsh, existing-industry manager for the EDC, said companies whose business was affected by the attacks had said that "the economy was in a slowdown to begin with, and the events of Sept. 11 created an impact that accelerated that downturn." Those companies also were affected by cuts in state funding, he said.
Among other results:
Thirty-eight percent of the businesses that were "greatly affected" by the attacks were nonprofits. Nonprofits also composed 25 percent of those that said they expected layoffs.
Seventeen percent of the businesses that were greatly affected were manufacturing companies, which also made up 19 percent of the companies that said they were expecting layoffs. But manufacturers also made up about 17 percent of the companies that said they were expecting sales increases.
Fifty percent of the companies that expected new hires were in construction. Nearly 13 percent of the companies that said they expected sales increases were in construction.
The companies that responded to the survey reported 63 layoffs and 303 new hires.
But those numbers might not be a complete picture of how Pasco's economy is faring, since an estimated 50,000 people travel out of the county each day to work.
In Pasco and Hernando, 1,696 people filed unemployment claims in October, up from 797 in October of last year. The number of people who have visited the unemployment offices, either to file claims or get retraining, jumped to 8,485 in October, up 49 percent over September.
"Maybe the employers aren't being affected, but it seems like the people who live here and work in other areas are being affected," said Jerome Salatino, manager of one-stop centers for Career Central of West Pasco.
The number of unemployment claims filed last month in Pasco and Hernando were nearly 50 percent higher than in Pinellas and 63 percent higher than in Hillsborough, according to Salatino.