Leading thought leaders and experts have arrived and checked into the Florida Chamber Foundation’s, 2016 Future of Florida Forum. Workforce demand, global competitiveness, innovation and economic development will guide the annual event.
The Florida Consortium of Metropolitan Research Universities was recently invited to participate in the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Foundation Board of Trustees. We’re participating in the Future of Florida Forum to observe and offer tangible solutions that FIU, UCF & USF; the state’s largest metropolitan research universities are working on together. Intellectually most Floridians would agree that education will play a major role in the future of the sunshine state. However, many of us may not know that we have a lot of work to do. Newly-released U.S. Census data shows positive increases among college-educated Floridians. In fact, for the sixth year in a row, the total is up with 39.9 percent of working-age adults holding an associate’s degree or higher. However, the state still lags the national average (40.9 percent) and ranks 29th of all states. Why does this matter? According to Noah Berger and Peter Fisher’s A Well-Educated Workforce Is Key to State Prosperity report, “overwhelmingly, high-wage states are states that have a well-educated workforce…The correlation is very strong and there are very large differences between median hourly wages in states with well-educated workforces and hourly wages in states with less-well-educated workforces (as measured by the share of workers who have at least a bachelor’s degree). In the 22 states with the least-educated workforces (30 percent or less with a bachelor’s degree or more education), median wages hover around $15 an hour, the only exceptions being Alaska and Wyoming. In the three states where more than 40 percent of the population has a bachelor’s or more education, median wages are $19 to $20 an hour, nearly a third higher. For a full-time, full-year worker, a median wage of $15 versus $20 an hour means the difference between making $30,000 a year and making $40,000 a year.”
Florida is experiencing rapid transformation and growth and is on track to swell to 26 million residents by 2030, but will there be enough good jobs to go around in the future? According to data from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, since 2010, Florida’s labor demand in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields has increased by more than 63 percent. However, there are more than 55,000 unfilled STEM jobs in Florida right now. Overall job growth in Florida will be about 12 percent by 2021. However, data from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity predicts STEM job growth will likely double overall job growth. In summary, the future depends on what we do now.
We look forward to seeing you at the Future of Florida Forum.