Economic Development

[spenser1058]

16 minutes ago, jack said:

Don't forget that Vegas is primarily casinos which make more money compared to the theme parks. 

My understanding is that is true only for those whose jobs are directly involved with gaming (and predominantly because it helps to keep them honest). According to a case study we once did in Labor Econ, in the other jobs at casino hotels, dining, etc., that was not the case prior to unionization. The professor noted that, for example, hotel rooms at the casino hotels tend to be less pricy than our theme park resorts because they serve as loss leaders to funnel guests to their casinos (in Florida, our parks actually work to funnel guests to the resorts - Disneyland has yet another model). As a result, wage rates for Vegas housekeepers, for example, tended to be lower accordingly.

 

[spenser1058]

Fast-growing local businesses in the region:

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2020/09/11/orlando-companies-among-fastest-growing-florida.html

From OBj

It’s good to note the number of non-hospitality industry firms.

[AmIReal]

3 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

It’s good to note the number of non-hospitality industry firms.

I think this is because the category is limited to 2nd stage firms.

"Florida-headquartered, second-phase companies that usually have 10-99 employees and/or revenue of $1 million-$50 million."

[spenser1058]

Still think we should keep doing more of the same?

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-maxwell-commentary/os-op-orlando-poverty-laborland-washington-post-scott-maxwell-20200915-usluionqt5fohmxcqvy43gcl34-story.html
 

From the Sentinel 

[spenser1058]

1900 permanently laid off at Sea World’s local parks:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-bz-seaworld-warn-layoffs-20200915-72m2hwjcqzfavjce3irq3mq7ti-story.html
 

From the Sentinel 

[jack]

21 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Still think we should keep doing more of the same?

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-maxwell-commentary/os-op-orlando-poverty-laborland-washington-post-scott-maxwell-20200915-usluionqt5fohmxcqvy43gcl34-story.html
 

From the Sentinel 

I read this and the WaPo article think its a bit unfair to focus so much on theme parks. Maxwell did have a throw away line about the fast food industry which I think is what drives the low rates. I am not sure what to do about this. It seems if fast food and restaurants invest in technology so they can decrease their total head count would help. They can raise the pay of the remaining employees but that means many people would wake up and be unemployed. 

[spenser1058]

For the moment, anyway, home sales in the urban zip codes are down while suburban sales are trending upward:

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2020/09/22/wide-open-spaces-orlando-homebuyers-look-for-more.html
 

From OBJ

[jack]

2 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

For the moment, anyway, home sales in the urban zip codes are down while suburban sales are trending upward:

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2020/09/22/wide-open-spaces-orlando-homebuyers-look-for-more.html
 

From OBJ

So the author uses only two downtown areas, provides raw numbers without the percentages, and never gives us the numbers for the suburbs. 

Anecdotally, I check the mls periodically to see what is for sale in 32806 and 32801. There is not much listed. 

[spenser1058]

Orlando’s 300 Aecom engineers and other employees will be taking on maintaining  KSC:
 

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2020/09/28/orlando-office-of-engineering-firm-aecom-wins-big.html

From OBJ

Go East, Young Man!

 

[dcluley98]

Disney is laying off 28,000 employees in the United States, including employees in Orlando. 

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-bz-disney-layoffs-coronavirus-20200929-kdk7l2j3pbdhlax5uadzx22sju-story.html

[idroveazamboni]

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-maxwell-commentary/os-op-disney-universal-seaworld-layoffs-orlando-scott-maxwell-20201002-wzju7vn7gra7bghg3ki3kwb2ae-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3gue2VPF2Q-CsEPKH_j6t1yCqxPTMn4xsvRbmNnnPTemxcq5-FUJE8CFY

[idroveazamboni]

Metros ranked by hourly median wage

Top 50 areas with more than 550,000 employees

 

$20.00

$25.00

San Jose, Calif.

$29.80

San Francisco

$27.42

Washington, D.C.

$27.08

Seattle

$25.65

Boston

$25.62

Hartford, Conn.

$24.34

New York

$23.48

Denver, CO

$22.81

Minneapolis

$22.60

Baltimore

$22.03

Portland

$21.80

San Diego

$21.66

Sacramento, Calif.

$21.44

Philadelphia

$21.08

Providence, R.I.

$20.53

Los Angeles

$20.52

Chicago

$20.43

Raleigh, N.C.

$20.02

Detroit

$20.01

Austin, Texas

$19.98

Milwaukee

$19.58

Kansas City, Mo.

$19.54

Houston

$19.51

Richmond, Va.

$19.51

Pittsburgh

$19.50

Dallas

$19.44

Cleveland

$19.44

Columbus, Ohio

$19.41

St. Louis

$19.31

Salt Lake City

$19.29

Atlanta

$19.23

Cincinnati

$19.05

Buffalo, N.Y.

$18.98

Phoenix, Ariz.

$18.95

Charlotte, N.C.

$18.86

Indianapolis

$18.77

Virginia Beach, Va.

$18.73

Nashville, Tenn.

$18.70

Riverside, Calif.

$18.17

Oklahoma City

$18.10

Louisville, Ky.

$18.01

Grand Rapids, Mich.

$17.98

Tampa

$17.87

Miami

$17.76

Jacksonville

$17.68

San Antonio

$17.37

Las Vegas

$17.14

New Orleans

$17.12

Memphis, Tenn.

$17.09

Orlando

$16.50

Chart: Adelaide Chen / Orlando Sentinel Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, OES May 2019  Get the data Created with Datawrapper

[spenser1058]

And yet, we seem to have a lot of folks here who think the way to get from being 50 of 50 is to double down on the industry that got us in this state of affairs in the first place. And this was when said industry was running on all cylinders. We haven’t even talked about how it’s the first to go off the rails when disaster strikes. Fascinating.

[dcluley98]

That's a lot of orange stripes to say that low wage service industry jobs suck. 

[nite owℓ]

18 hours ago, dcluley98 said:

That's a lot of orange stripes to say that low wage service industry jobs suck. 

$16.50 is nothing to sneeze at, it's a hell of a lot more than what my first job paid.

I don't understand how people whose salaries are "off the charts" still cannot make ends meet and have nothing to show for it. Why??

[idroveazamboni]

6 hours ago, nite owℓ said:

$16.50 is nothing to sneeze at, it's a hell of a lot more than what my first job paid.

I don't understand how people whose salaries are "off the charts" still cannot make ends meet and have nothing to show for it. Why??

Inflation it's all about purchasing power and the federal government,  both parties are doing their best to destroy it and with the Federal Reserve being the money tree you will understand why 16.5 hr don't get you very far.

https://zirpqe.wordpress.com/dollar-debasement/

[nite owℓ]

36 minutes ago, idroveazamboni said:

Inflation it's all about purchasing power and the federal government,  both parties are doing their best to destroy it and with the Federal Reserve being the money tree you will understand why 16.5 hr don't get you very far.

https://zirpqe.wordpress.com/dollar-debasement/

Inflation? I'm not that old... still in my 30's. Even when accounting for inflation - I was making less than the Orlando hourly rate at my first job (restaurant).

To be honest, my hourly rate is still less than the top rate on the chart. Even before getting to this point, I was able to buy 2 properties (granted during the recession) and I did so without any financial assistance from family. I'm not going to lie and say it was easy (because it sucked), but when you're not making a lot of money you have to accept that you cannot have it all. You prioritize and sacrifice. Sometimes I look at my peers and wonder what tf are they thinking. I understand everyone's circumstances are unique, but we all have to live within our means.

You know how expensive it is to buy property in our home town. That 16.5/hr will go a lot further down here than it ever would up there.

Edited October 5, 2020 by nite owℓ

[jack]

4 hours ago, nite owℓ said:

Inflation? I'm not that old... still in my 30's. Even when accounting for inflation - I was making less than the Orlando hourly rate at my first job (restaurant).

To be honest, my hourly rate is still less than the top rate on the chart. Even before getting to this point, I was able to buy 2 properties (granted during the recession) and I did so without any financial assistance from family. I'm not going to lie and say it was easy (because it sucked), but when you're not making a lot of money you have to accept that you cannot have it all. You prioritize and sacrifice. Sometimes I look at my peers and wonder what tf are they thinking. I understand everyone's circumstances are unique, but we all have to live within our means.

You know how expensive it is to buy property in our home town. That 16.5/hr will go a lot further down here than it ever would up there.

$$16.50 is the median. It is more than enough to live in central Florida but the problems are with the people that make $10 or less. The fast food workers or the people that do not work full time. If we want to fix this low wage issue, lets ban fast food restaurants! 

As I side, I made $5 at my first job and thought I was loaded. I was in high school so I had no expenses. 

[spenser1058]

The Chief Economist of Wall Street Bank Goldman Sachs is bullish on both a short- and long-term economic expansion in the wake of a blue wave by VP Joe Biden and in both houses of Congress:

https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-outlook-biden-blue-wave-boost-growth-goldman-sachs-2020-10
 

From Business Insider

[spenser1058]

Scott Maxwell addresses via an article in Bloomberg the no-linger-true notion that Orlando has a low cost of living to defray its 50 out of 50 wage scale:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-maxwell-commentary/os-op-disney-universal-seaworld-layoffs-orlando-scott-maxwell-20201002-wzju7vn7gra7bghg3ki3kwb2ae-story.html
 

From The Sentinel

The funny thing is, I knew better than that way back in the ‘80’s. When I moved to Nashville, my pay for a comparable job to the one I had in Orlando was higher even as rent (and even prices at Captain D’s) were lower! And Tennessee doesn’t have a state income tax, either.

Since then, it’s gotten much worse as investment in local real estate by out-of-towners has made rental costs skyrocket.

[spenser1058]

Bloomberg also notes we may have already reached the peak number of miles we’ll drive, even after COVID-19 recedes:

https://jalopnik.com/we-might-never-drive-that-much-again-1845273759
 

From Jalopnik

It does suggest city planners should be thinking about how rules made for an ever-growing number of automobiles 50 and 60 years ago might need to be tweaked moving forward.

We know, for example, that retailers are already making plans to spread out Black Friday shopping over a period of months. As a result, the parking minimums once required for shopping centers, always a tad ridiculous, no longer make any sense at all.

Edited October 6, 2020 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

Orlando fares worst with unemployment among Florida cities for unemployment woes resulting from COVID and #8 in the US:

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2020/10/07/orlando-among-worst-in-us-unemployment-in-pandemic.html

From OBJ

A common denominator for the worst performing cities: a heavily tourism-dependent economy.

Of course, the solution being proposed by our local leaders and forward-thinking posters here at UP? Let’s double down and become MORE tourism dependent? That’ll fix the problem!

 

 

[sethM]

On 10/5/2020 at 12:56 AM, nite owℓ said:

$16.50 is nothing to sneeze at, it's a hell of a lot more than what my first job paid.

I don't understand how people whose salaries are "off the charts" still cannot make ends meet and have nothing to show for it. Why??

First, half of the workers make less than $16.50. This isn't starting wages of entry level employees, this is all ages and all skill levels. Half make less than or equal to $16.50. 

Second, this chart doesn't cover benefits. I imagine if you had a chart that took health insurance costs into account the gaps would be much larger. $16.50 isn't much when you need to shell out $5k a year for health coverage and then a basic apartment is going to be an almost absolute minimum of $800 /month. 

[nite owℓ]

47 minutes ago, sethM said:

First, half of the workers make less than $16.50. This isn't starting wages of entry level employees, this is all ages and all skill levels. Half make less than or equal to $16.50. 

Second, this chart doesn't cover benefits. I imagine if you had a chart that took health insurance costs into account the gaps would be much larger. $16.50 isn't much when you need to shell out $5k a year for health coverage and then a basic apartment is going to be an almost absolute minimum of $800 /month. 

You are preaching to the choir.

[spenser1058]

SpaceX set time benefit from increased military contracts:

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-military-contracts-dod-space-force-2020-10
 

As Elon Musk reduces the price of rockets, DoD is set to use them increasingly for fast delivery of weapons and other goods.

Hopefully, this will include more activity from SpaceX facilities in the region.

From Business Insider