Volusia Business News: You’ve got to have the right kind of jobs
As I’m sure you’ve heard over the years, for a strong local economy, you need higher-paying jobs with good benefits.
That’s why the opening of a place like Dave & Buster’s in Daytona Beach, while nice to have, isn’t that great as employment news, despite its 200 jobs. Retail and restaurants jobs just don’t provide the boost you want in an economy. Since many of them are part-time and don’t provide benefits like health insurance, they don’t really provide a boost to quality of life either.
The jobs you want are in construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, healthcare and professions, such as accountants and lawyers. That‘s why it pains me to look at what we have in the Volusia/Flagler area. The first jobs report of the year from the state labor agency shows the two-county area with 14,800 construction jobs, 11,900 manufacturing jobs and 5,300 wholesale trade jobs. The statistics are a little better with 40,400 jobs in education and health services, and 22,700 jobs in professional services.
All of that sounds like a lot of jobs until you do the math and realize it’s not even half of the 206,500 total jobs the state estimates non-agricultural employers provide in Volusia and Flagler counties. That’s because we have big numbers in retail trade at 31,500 and leisure and hospitality at 33,000.
We don’t even do that well with government jobs at just 24,000 with a measly 1,500 federal government jobs. Even Alachua County, which is half the size of Volusia, has 4,500 federal jobs. Of course, with the University of Florida, Alachua has 29,700 state government jobs.
So, while Dave & Busters, Miami Grill and all the other places opening recently was fun, I was most excited to find out the nearly $14 million office/warehouse next to Trader Joe’s distribution center will be occupied by Amazon Direct. While I’ve seen reports that working in Amazon warehouses isn’t that great a job, it’s a lot better than most retail, restaurant or hotel jobs.
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Unicorp National Development has begun leasing space for its South Williamson Shops, which wraps around the RaceTrac at Williamson and LPGA boulevards. So far, the developer has signed up ABC Fine Wine & Spirts, AT&T, Extra Space Storage, Goodwill and Great Clips.
You’ll be reading a lot about Unicorp’s activities as it now owns a lot of land in the LPGA/Williamson area. By-the-way, that tip was sent to me by readere Jeff Bourgoyne. Keep those tips coming folks.
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Daytona Beach-based ICI Homes, which just started building in its new Woodhaven development in Port Orange, is planning Lago Verde with apartments, townhouses and an office building north and west of Hinson Middle School, between Clyde Morris and Williamson boulevards in Daytona Beach.
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Not a lot of business happens during Bike Week. The only commercial real estate deal of note was a Port Orange investor buying the office building at 4550 S. Clyde Morris Blvd., Port Orange, for $865,000.
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On a final note, a couple of miscellaneous items include the Speedway Bar going into the former site of Oyster Bay at 500 E. International Speedway Blvd. in Daytona Beach. Also, Vanacore Construction moving forward with the planned 58 lot addition to Halifax Plantation in Ormond Beach.
Managing Editor Cecil G. Brumley has been tracking business and the economy in Volusia County for more than 22 years. Contact him at cbrumley@hometownnewsol.com (no hyphen) or follow him on Twitter @cecilbrumley.