Need for health care workers dominates on First Coast to start August (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Health care industry job openings dominate on the First Coast, according to state figures, although the largest single employer is a fintech giant.
As of Aug. 3, an analysis by Employ Florida based on online job ads found 38,939 open positions on the First Coast. The most workers — 5,788 — are need in health care and social assistance roles, while 3,365 are needed for professional, scientific and technical services, 3,249 for retail trade positions and 2,582 for finance and insurance jobs.
FIS is looking for the most workers, with the Fortune 500 company advertising 976 positions.
The top five list was otherwise populated by hospitals, with Baptist Health looking to fill 884 positions, Ascension St. Vincent’s 484, Mayo Clinic Florida 460 and Memorial Hospital parent company HCA Healthcare 453.
Employ Florida is a partnership between the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and CareerSource Florida Inc.
Jacksonville has the fourth largest number of job openings in the area, behind metro Miami/Fort Lauderdale (116,244), metro Tampa (75,310) and metro Orlando (58,119).
In Jacksonville, there are 42,279 candidates available, the state said, slightly more than one worker for each open position.
Here’s how the local counties ranked:
- Duval County: 29,372
- Clay County: 3,940
- St. Johns County: 3,884
- Nassau County: 1,496
- Flagler County: 1,185
- Putnam County: 904
- Baker County: 247
Sean Snaith, director of the UCF Institute for Economic Forecasting expects the labor market to cool off as the Florida economy goes through a year-long recession.
A cool down of the economy will be helpful for fixing supply chain demand, lower housing costs, drop the price of oil and gas along with easing labor shortages, he said.
“A recession is never good news as there are always those who will experience economic pain, but compared to the previous two recessions our state has been through (2008-2009 and 2020), the amount of pain we will endure is far less,” Snaith said.