Where Are the Jobs? Battling a Slowdown in Job Creation
A few months ago, temporary staffing manager Jeremy Dixon was confident the gears of job creation were finally cranking again. One of his manufacturing clients hired 18 temp employees and another hired a dozen. Then came July. Both companies cut way back to just two or three hires apiece. Few predicted a smooth climb toward economic recovery after the deepest recession since World War II. Still, the setbacks on the employment front this summer have left job placement experts like Dixon exasperated. [Source: St. Petersburg Times]
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» Job Losses Cast Doubt on Recovery [AP]
"Nightly Business Report" Has New Owner
After more than three decades of public television ownership, the Nightly Business Report is going private. The show's leadership announced that Nightly Business Report World Wide Inc., headed by Mykalai Kontilai, a distributor of instructional television shows and former manager of celebrity martial artists, has purchased the program from WPBT-PBS2 in Miami. The show will continue to be produced from the station's North Miami studio. [Source: Miami Herald]
Group Works to Develop Ferry Linking Tampa Bay Area
Start with a stay at a St. Pete Beach resort. Take a ferry across Tampa Bay to the Channel District. Then maybe meander over to Ybor City. Then back across the bay to St. Petersburg for happy hour and a return to the beach. "That's my ideal trip," said Mike Peterson, a member of the Apollo Beach Chamber of Commerce. It could become a reality. Peterson and about 15 others worked Thursday to develop potential routes for a ferry service linking the bay area. [Source: St. Petersburg Times]
The Buy Owner broker-free real estate firm, known for its familiar "Thanks, Buy Owner" advertisements, has filed for liquidation as the housing market continues to struggle. The Deerfield Beach-based company will continue to operate with a reduced staff as a buyer is sought for its assets, which could include the purchase of the firm in its entirety, minus its debt. [Source: Palm Beach Post]
Twenty-two years after losing her job in the insurance business, 53-year-old Petra Lee of Gainesville hopes to get a job marketing green construction projects for a building contractor. With more than 25 years in accounting, 68-year-old Eli Santana of Gainesville now would like to help a big company find energy savings. They are among the more than 130 people out of work but newly trained in various green skills designed to improve energy efficiency so Gainesville will have the talent to attract businesses in the burgeoning green energy economy.
[Source: Gainesville Sun]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Tech Data Stays Nimble, Rakes in Profit
On quarterly sales of nearly $5.5 billion, Tech Data earned $40.9 million in an industry with cutthroat competition and thin margins. But Dutkowsky, 55, has more than company performance to beam about. He sees an improving economy. And he has a specific message to Floridians who, day to day, wrestle with a still troubled local economy. Things will get better, says Dutkowsky, whose company ranks 109 on this year's Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations.
› Polk Works Honors the County's Best Employers
An insurance firm. An orange juice producer. Environmental cleanup companies and a wine distributor. They're all winners of Polk County's Best Places to Work Awards. The Best Places to Work Awards, presented annually by Polk Works, are determined by employee surveys and a panel of judges, with criteria including employee motivation and retention, training and development initiatives, and commitment to work-life balance issues.
› Selling Postcards of Home to Save Home
The Postcard Lady never loses her nerve. Armed with an arsenal of bumper sticker sayings and island proverbs — along with a sandwich bag stuffed with postcards — she steps out onto the sand of Sunset Beach on a Friday afternoon to hawk her wares. Her goal: to sell 5,000 postcards. The going is tough. Sometimes she sells only one or two. On this day, Aug. 6, she will sell none. It's too hot. The sun is glaring. Ashy clouds gather behind the Howard Park Causeway. But the Postcard Lady does not seem fazed. "I make do till I get through," she says, smiling serenely. It's her trademark line.
› Homeowners Associations Buck Cable Bills
Recessed lights have been ripped from the ceiling and yanked cable wires have left a gaping hole in the wall, yet the residents of Avalon Lakes must still pony up $44 a month to the community's cable-TV company for service to the vacant town home — and every other foreclosed and delinquent house in the neighborhood. For years, subdivision developers have locked their homeowners associations into blanket cable-television contracts that force the associations to pay for every home in a community — even if a house is empty or the owners are behind on their homeowner fees.
› Opera Tampa Receives $1 Million Gift
Good things can come from a mix-up.
In June, Dr. Zena Lansky had decided to make a substantial donation to Opera Tampa when she received her 2010-11 season tickets in the mail. The tickets were for the wrong seats, and when Lansky, a surgeon in Clearwater, called the company to complain, she ended up speaking with Maria Zouves, the associate general director.
"I told her that I had decided to give the opera a gift, and they sent me the wrong tickets,'' said Lansky on Wednesday, laughing at the memory of that conversation.
› Gainesville Co. Says Invention Will Revolutionize Treatment
The staff of IrriMax, a small Gainesville biotechnology company, believe they've built a better mousetrap -- one they say could revolutionize how hospitals ward off infection. Their patented two-step product for wound care, called IrriSept, will change how physicians approach wound care, said Dr. Paul Rucinski, a company founder.
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› Satellite Beach Speedboat Maker Started Slow -- in Surfboards
Whether it's surfboards or high-performance boats, Doug Wright has a passion for building things that can move quickly on the water. Some of those things move just a bit faster than the others, as spectators will see this weekend. The 56-year-old Wright's work with the bigger and faster of his handbuilt watercraft will be display at the Super Boat Thunder On the Beach in Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach this weekend. The event will feature high-performance catamarans that can reach up to 200 miles per hour.
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RELATED: Super Boats Battle off Cocoa Beach
› Department Stores Lure Buyers with Trendy Fashions
When Georgia Dixon's mom suggested they go to Macy's for school clothes, the 16-year-old didn't see the point. "Usually when I think of Macy's, I think of where my mother goes to shop," said Georgia, whose family lives part-time in Coconut Grove. "I would never go to shop here." But Georgia and her mom, Anna Dixon, were amazed Wednesday when they stumbled on the new Material Girl collection -- designed by Madonna and her daughter Lourdes.
› Wi-Fi Draws Customers, Personal Info Lures Crooks
After someone sniffed out his password at a free Wi-Fi hotspot and successfully hacked his computer, Igor Mello stays home for the majority of his web use. "I trust my network more than anyone else's," said Mello, of Plantation, who had several social media sites compromised in the break-in. Whether at home on their private networks or at a local coffee shop or library, Internet users should always protect themselves and their computers while surfing on Wi-Fi networks, experts say.
› Dredge Contractor Asks for $7.8 Million More
The Hernando Beach Channel dredging project is in trouble again. Big trouble. Expensive trouble.
This week the county received a change order request from its dredging contractor Orion Dredging Services LLC seeking an additional $7.8 million to pay for added work under the new permit, various claims and the costs of demobilizing while the dredge has been stalled since January.
› More Travellers Combining Business with Pleasure
The difference between time on the work clock and time off has turned even murkier. So says a recently released survey of 549 extended-stay business travelers. Two-thirds of respondents said they combined a business trip with a leisure trip either frequently or sometimes.
› Lake Worth Time-share Company to Issue Refunds over Fraud
Consumers burned by time-share resale firm TS Luxury Group Inc. of Lake Worth have 90 days to get a crack at refunds under a settlement announced today.
The company agreed to dissolve permanently and issue more than $110,000 in refunds to customers who have already complained to state authorities, the office of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said. The firm is also required to give money back to customers who file verifiable complaints with the attorney general in the next three months.
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St. Petersburg to Decide How to Use Pier
The Pier is dead. Long live the Pier.
A new pier will rise from the ashes of the iconic inverted pyramid, but before it does, the city needs to figure out how it will be used.
Should there be more retail space or restaurant space? Should visitors be able to park their cars or their boats? Does the city want to attract older folks or young families? Locals or tourists?
› Federal Health Care Tax Credit to Help Small Business
Jeff Guy, the owner of Jacksonville-based 3 Sisters Chocolate, is happy that health care reform is going to give his business a tax credit for something he already does. "This is going to be a benefit to us; sounds great," he said. Guy didn't know about the tax credit, which he and millions of other small business owners will receive when they file their 2010 taxes next year. He already qualifies for reimbursement of 35 percent of his employee health care premiums cost because he pays half of the premiums for his employees.
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