March 28, 2024

Friday's Afternoon Update

What You Need to Know About Florida Today

For Each Job Added, 25 Floridians Still Out of Work

The national unemployment rate slipped from 9.4 percent to 9.0 percent from December 2010-January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday. Florida's jobless rate won't be reported until March 7 -- the states take a break in February to reanalyze the year's data. But economists don't expect the state's rate, which was 12 percent in December, to be much different. A new report released Friday by Florida International University's Research Institute on Social & Economic Policy explains why. At the end of 2010 Florida’s economic outlook is still uncertain. The number of jobs increased just slightly in 2010, growing by 0.6% for an addition of 43,500 jobs. However there are still over 1.1 million people unemployed in the state. This means that for every job that was added, there are still 25 people for whom there was no job. In addition the year ended with a 0.2% decline in employment from November to December. This recession has been characterized by extremely high long-term unemployment. Read more from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and see the full report from the Research Institute on Social & Economic Policy.

MUST-KNOW FLORIDIAN

Floridian

Meet Dave Bundy, president and CEO of the Children’s Home Society of Florida. He told his employees at the non-profit to document the amount of time spent on redundant bureaucratic procedures. His findings led lawmakers to make changes that will save Children's Home Society of Florida anywhere from $75,000 to $100,000 a year.

» Tale of the (Red) Tape
» Children's Home Society

UF, A&M Launch Institute to Promote Better Health, Job Training

A $600,000 grant from the State University System Board of Governors funded the launch of the Community Health Workers Training and Research Institute, which seeks to help people improve their health while acquiring marketable skills that can be translated into job opportunities within the health care field. The institute will train people to become community health workers who can educate themselves and others about healthful behaviors. That will increase the supply of health workers and boost the chances for unemployed, underemployed or disabled persons to find work, particularly in rural, medically underserved areas with high proportions of ethnic minorities. “Not only will the institute help Florida address its obesity and other health-related problems,” said co-principal investigator Carolyn Tucker, a professor of psychology and community health and family medicine, “it will also help address the state’s unemployment situation.” [Source: University of Florida News]


At Sarasota's Ringling, A Museum in Bloom

In the far back corner of the Ringling Museum of Art west galleries Thursday morning, Josie Northrup and Harriet Stieff prepared their artistic supplies. Not paint, pencil nor marble — rather they arranged buckets of pink and blue hydrangeas, perfectly opened red and yellow roses, spiky snapdragons, yellow and red-striped parrot tulips, red and white lilies, just-blooming forsythia and all manner of greenery. Clippers, tape and hunks of green florist foam took the place of brushes, palettes and chisels. Their task: to create a huge floral arrangement — inspired by art in the museum's galleries — to anchor the museum's Rubens Gallery for this weekend's inaugural Ringling in Bloom event. The arrangement is the largest of two dozen created by members of area garden clubs that reflect images contained in artworks in the museum's permanent collection. They will be on display through Sunday; other events include a fashion show, concert, garden tours and workshops with internationally noted floral designer René van Rems. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]


Online Foreclosure Auctions: Proceed with Care

OK, maybe it was too easy. With just a few clicks of the mouse, Orlando accountant John Dey bought a Lake Nona-area house that was auctioned off during one of Orange County's new, online foreclosure auctions. And get this: In the kind of deal espoused by get-rich-quick authors, he paid just $20,000 for a house worth close to $200,000. But as more than two dozen Florida counties have opened their foreclosure auctions in the past year to bidders from around the world via the Internet, inexperienced auction bidders such as Dey are learning the hard way that these troubled properties can be, well, troubled. The houses may be embroiled in property-line disputes, riddled with ownership complications or saddled with outstanding debt. For Dey, it was a lesson that cost him $20,000 for a house he'll never really own. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]


Liquor Group Bucks the System and Gets an Edge

In the tightly controlled and highly competitive business of alcohol distribution, C.J. Eiras, chief executive of Liquor Group Wholesale Inc., thinks his company has an edge over others in the industry. “We don’t buy any of the inventory,” Eiras said, referring to a “bailment” system of deferring payment for inventory. “That allows us a tremendous advantage over any other distributor,” he said. Liquor Group is a publicly traded Jacksonville-based company that distributes alcoholic beverages in 33 states. Eiras said his company’s bailment system is unique in the industry. In the U.S., alcoholic beverages are distributed mainly through a three-tier system in which manufactures sell their products to distributors, who in turn sell the products to retailers. But under the bailment system used by Liquor Group, the company does not pay the manufacturer when it handles a shipment. When a retailer buys products under Liquor Group’s control, Liquor Group collects the payment from the retailer, keeps a commission, and sends the rest of the payment on to the manufacturer. [Source: Florida Times-Union]


Balancing Act
budget gap So you think you can fix the state's budget...
Florida is facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit — the difference between what the state collects in taxes and the money needed to pay for key services like education, law enforcement and health care. The Bob Graham Center for Public Service is asking you to fix it. The Sunshine State’s constitution requires a balanced budget. Using the interactive pie chart tool you can help close the gap in the state’s $70 billion budget.


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Bitter-to-swallow cocoa costs force chocolate shops to raise prices
Bitter-to-swallow cocoa costs force chocolate shops to raise prices

Central Floirda chocolate shops are left with a bitter taste as cocoa prices hit an all-time high earlier this week.

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