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Growing Innovation
Ready workforce + superior research facilities + business-friendly policies = key sector success.
Financial and Professional Services
Close to 90% of Florida’s gross economic output is generated in the service sector.
| $15-20 billion - Average value of Florida services exported to other countries in any given year |
- Florida’s 110,600+ financial and professional services companies employ more than 853,000 workers throughout the state. Many professional and industry organizations support this cluster’s growth.
- Designation as a “high impact” industry provides expanding or relocating financial services companies in Florida with greater opportunities for tax credits and incentives.
Manufacturing
Manufacturers in both traditional industries, such as food processing, plastics and printing, and breakthrough technologies in electronics, medical devices and aviation/aerospace thrive here.
- 16,500 manufacturers employ nearly 390,000 workers throughout the state.Florida is one of only 10 states with a right-to-work provision in its constitution.The state’s 3.2% unionization rate in manufacturing, 3rd lowest in the U.S.
- Employ Florida Banner Center for Manufacturing offers one of the first programs in the U.S. to prepare students and employees for the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council’s new Production Technician Certification.
Emerging Technologies
Florida’s economic future is being built at many R&D sites, where medical science, biotechnology, IT, engineering and physics converge. The following is a list of just a few examples, but there are many more. For additional information about developments in these emerging technologies and in all Florida industry sectors, visit www.eflorida.com.
Alternative energy
- At the Florida Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology at Florida Atlantic University, researchers are investigating how energy by ocean currents might be harnessed to meet future power needs.
- The Florida Solar Energy Center, affiliated with the University of Central Florida, is the largest and most active state-supported renewable energy and energy efficiency research institute in the United States.
Marine science
- At the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, one of only four NSF-NIEHS Oceans and Human Health Centers in the country, researchers are studying the associations between human health, harmful algal blooms, microbial contamination and pharmaceuticals from the sea.
Materials science
- The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL), the only facility of its kind in the United States and the world’s largest and highest-powered magnetic laboratory, is headquartered in a 330,000-square-foot complex near Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Nanotechnology Florida International University’s Motorola Nanofabrication Research Facility is one of only a handful of such laboratories in the world with concept-to-prototype capabilities. - University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science/Center for Ocean Technology is home to the largest microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) facility in the Southeast.
