SOUTHWEST FLORIDA EDUCATIONAL AND WORKFORCE OUTCOMES REPORT
November 7th, 2023
By Mark Gordon - Business Observer
Mark Gordon is the managing editor of the Business Observer. He has worked for the Business Observer since 2005. He previously worked for newspapers and magazines in upstate New York, suburban Philadelphia and Jacksonville.
The FutureMakers Coalition, a group of business, nonprofit and civic leaders in Southwest Florida, is inching its way toward its three goals of transforming the region’s workforce, closing a higher education gap and reversing brain drain where the young people who are educated here leave to work somewhere else.
And while its most recent comprehensive study, the 2023 Southwest Florida Educational and Workforce Outcomes Report, highlights some of that progress, it’s also a glimpse into some glaring weaknesses — notably in early and elementary school education.
Workforce Now, a research initiative that studies the regional workforce and is made up of researchers from Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida SouthWestern State College and FutureMakers Coalition, conducted the study and published the 121-page report. It looks at demographics, education, occupations, employment gaps and projected job growth, using local, state and federal data.
One of the FutureMakers Coalition’s stated goals is to increase the proportion of working-age adults with college degrees, workforce certificates, industry certifications and other high-quality credentials to 55% by 2025. That’s a pathway, the organization says, that begins with early childhood learning and ends with post-high school credential attainment and career connections.
That’s where some of the progress can be found: The skilled workforce in the five-county region was 39% of the working age population in 2013, or 218,586 people. In 2021 that number had climbed to 43.7% of the working age population, the report found.
On the flip side, the education grades in the region, in addition to the state, can best be described as dismal. Kindergarten readiness — the percent of pre-K students considered ready for kindergarten — was 48.1% in fall 2022. That less-than-half outcome is even 1.1 percentage points below the state level.
The third grade reading proficiency rate in Southwest Florida, meanwhile, was 47% in the 2022-23 academic year, down 3 percentage points from Florida.
Jobs central
The FutureMakers Coalition includes 150 partner organizations and over 260 active FutureMakers representing business, education, government, nonprofits, philanthropy, residents and students across Glades, Hendry, Collier, Lee, and Charlotte counties.
Other data points from the Coalition’s 2023 Southwest Florida Educational and Workforce Outcomes Report include:
Collier County had the highest average annual wage in Southwest Florida in 2022 at $62,734. Lee County was No. 2, at $55,051 in 2022. Charlotte County was No. 5, after Glades and Hendry, at $48,283.
Construction is projected to see the highest average annual growth between 2022 and 2030, growing by 1,283 jobs over the next eight years. Health care and social assistance had the next highest average annual growth, at 1,271 new jobs; followed by accommodation and food services with 824 new jobs; government with 699 new jobs and professional, scientific and technical services with 587 new jobs. Those five industries combined represent some two-thirds of all new jobs to be created over the next eight years, the report found.
