Like much of the nation, Florida is facing a workforce crisis.

According to a new study released today by the Florida Chamber Foundation on skill gaps and existing opportunities within the Florida workforce, strong demand in high-paying careers has resulted in chronic talent shortages, particularly in career areas like Healthcare, Business/Finance, IT/Math, and Architecture/Engineering.

This first-of-its-kind state analysis of the Florida workplace identifies in-demand career areas, the skills demanded by employers, and transition opportunities that will align Florida’s workforce supply with employer demand.

According to the Foundation, the results provide a comprehensive look at the skills Floridians need to have upward or even lateral mobility in over-skilled occupations, and potentially transition to in-demand occupations that have more demand than supply and higher wages.

“Florida’s workforce is facing a crisis. Although Florida remained open for business throughout the pandemic, Florida currently has 512,900 open jobs looking for people to fill them and only 503,000 people actively looking for work,” said Florida Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mark Wilson. “Addressing the current workforce crisis by reimagining the existing workforce and preparing a strong future workforce by providing a roadmap for building, upskilling and reskilling Florida’s talent pipeline is essential to help us grow to a top 10 global economy.”

According to the Florida Chamber’s Media Relations Manager Megan Sweat, Florida has set a goal to have America’s number one workforce. To achieve that goal, Florida employers need to create approximately two million new jobs by 2030, and by focusing on the current and future job skills, Florida can develop another economic development advantage

“Florida’s current and future workforce has the opportunity to obtain the skills needed to join top career areas that are on a growth trajectory and provide high wages,” said Florida Chamber Foundation Chief Economist Dr. Jerry Parrish. “Results shows many Florida careers are oversupplied while many others are undersupplied, and workers in those oversupplied areas may need only one or a few additional skills to transition to undersupplied career areas with high wages—something especially important to know for adult workers.”

Key Florida Chamber Foundation’s Florida Workforce Needs Study findings include:

• Four of the career areas that are expected to be undersupplied with talent include Healthcare, Business/Finance, IT/Math, and Architecture/Engineering.  Those career areas offer many of the highest wages to Florida workers.
• The volume of undersupply gaps between employer demand and workforce supply are large enough to have a dramatic effect on Florida employment.
• Many pathways exist from oversupplied, lower-wage career areas to undersupplied high-wage career areas.

“It is our hope the Florida business community and education system will collaboratively leverage the Florida Workforce Needs Study to align education and training curriculum to career opportunities and industry needs as much as possible to give Florida’s current and future talent, and job creators alike, the best opportunity to succeed,” added Wilson.

To view results of the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Florida Workforce Needs Study, visit www.FLChamber.com/FloridaWorkforceNeedsStudy.