More than 250 business professionals and students got an in-depth look at the state of the local and national economies Friday at the seventh annual Bonita Estero Market Pulse at Florida Gulf Coast University. The event’s speakers say the national and regional economies are improving, but predict recovery will be slow in the next couple of years.
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President and CEO Sandra Pianalto delivered the keynote address with her prediction that the nation’s economy will improve by 2.5% in 2013 and by 3% in 2014. Pianalto also estimates the national unemployment rate will fall to 7% by the end of the year.
FGCU economics professor and director of the Regional Economic and Research Institute Gary Jackson said tourism remains a bright spot in the local economy, but that overall recovery of the local economy will also be slow. “Business activity’s been up,” said Jackson, “The challenge now is to work with a lot of the folks who have been unemployed for a long time to be able to get them back in to the workforce and productively producing goods and services for everybody.”
Director of Metrostudy’s South Florida Division and local market trend forecaster Bradley Hunter spoke about the local housing market. Hunter says business in new construction has experienced a dramatic turn-around since the collapse of the housing market in 2007 but that finding qualified workers in the construction sector could be a challenge as developers grow more confident and begin to hire.
