‘Future is now’: Officials look to leverage economic growth

Oct. 03--MIRAMAR BEACH -- Florida Panhandle counties will need to work together to address the daunting job growth challenges facing the region through 2030, officials said at an economic forum Monday.

Business leaders, elected officials and others from counties throughout the region offered their insights on the subject at the 21st annual Gulf Power Economic Symposium, which continues Tuesday at the Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort.

"The future is now. We can be creating the future for 2030 now, and we need to be thinking about it that way," said Stan Connally, CEO of Gulf Power Co.

Finding employees here with the skills and ambition to do the jobs or to move here to take a position was listed as one of the biggest challenges to economic growth.

Mark Wilson, the CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, pointed to figures that showed 19,529 jobs must be created in 12 Northwest Florida counties by 2020 to keep the unemployment rate the same as it is now, and 58,091 new jobs will be needed by 2030.

He said officials at the local level need to remember these numbers.

"What if all 12 county commissions started out their discussion with these job numbers?" Wilson said.

He said there is an opportunity to make more products in Florida and move products more in Florida.

"What would happen if all 100 containers that were exported into (the port) here left full?" Wilson said. "What can we do in this region to make sure those" leave full?

He said he is bullish about the state's economy, pointing out Florida has the 24th most diversified economy in the country.

"If Florida (were) a stock, I'd be buying all I can," he said. "This is a region, this is a state that has a bright future," he said.

However, Wilson said, the chamber's chief economist noted the state is adding jobs but at a slower pace.

"We need to create opportunity for job growth," Wilson said.

Wilson served as moderator of a "Northwest Florida Made Panel" discussion in which area business owners talked about their companies and the challenges they faced getting off the ground and finding talented workers.

Corey Cooper, CEO of BOTE, a paddle board company in Destin that he started by borrowing $7,000 of his own money, said he now sells boards in stores throughout the country, but finding quality workers is a major challenge.

"All the young people in high school systems around here are leaving," he said. He said the potential workers can't afford to live here when they come back.

"Building a nationwide brand, you need experienced people in marketing or sales. People who have that leave here," he said. "The biggest challenge we have here is people move here not to work."

Caroline Dauzat, chief financial officer of Rex Lumber, said their company has implemented a program where employees can enhance their skills at Chipola College.

"We are proud to have awarded 13 scholarships this past fall alone," she said.

She said the Northwest Florida Manufacturing Council has been promoting manufacturing careers. "We're just out there selling it, the manufacturing career," she said.

Education officials at a "Talent Talks" forum spoke about creating a talented workforce for the future. Madeline Pumariega, the chancellor of the Florida College System, said secondary education, not necessarily college, is crucial.

Maybe college isn't for everyone," she said, adding that education officials know 64 percent of jobs being created in Florida need a post secondary credential. She said today "if you simply earn your high school diploma and don't receive any secondary education, a year later you make $8 an hour."

"And you move right into poverty," she said.

Tom Fanning, CEO of the Southern Co. and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said the recovery from the recession has been anemic.

"We've had a lot of ... of institutionalized problems with the economy we are trying to draw our way out of," he said. "In other words, too much bureaucracy."

Fanning said that with changes in technology "we've got to retrain a whole new generation."

"I still think we can grow jobs, but, boy oh, boy, are they going to be different," he said.

He said the United States is in an unprecedented position "to drive energy policy that will dominate eventually our ability to grow the economy."

Peter Zeihan, a geopolitical strategist and author of "The Accidental Super Power" and "The Absent Super Power," said the United States is poised for a positive economic future, particularly with its recent dominance in the oil market.

He said the United States and Canada as a unit have become a top energy exporter in the world.

"It changes the way we view the world," Zeihan said.

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