COVER STORY
TCBusiness.com 11
The huge retirement industry is one of
the reasons that each of the economic
development organizations in the three
counties is keen to expand manufacturing,
which not only increases the amount of
money coming into the area by sending
out boats, airplanes and fabricated steel,
but also diversifies the economy to give it
a wider and deeper foundation.
Martin County led the Treasure Coast in
the number of manufacturing jobs from
2007 through 2015. St. Lucie County took
the lead over the other two counties in
2016, and widened its lead in 2017, U.S.
Census figures show. In 2017, St. Lucie led
the Treasure Coast with 4,008 manufacturing
jobs, followed by Martin at 3,721 and
Indian River at 2,282.
Manufacturers in Florida in 2017 accounted
for 5.4 percent of the total output
of the state and employed 367,400 people,
or 4.3 percent of the non-farming workforce,
the U.S. Census Bureau reported.
Florida’s manufacturing output was $51.86
billion in 2017.
Average manufacturing wages, which
include money paid into retirement
funds as well as manager and blue-collar
worker pay, in 2017 were $65,364 in
Martin County; $62,810 in Indian River;
and $52,906 in St. Lucie. Starting from the
previous 10 years, Martin showed an average
wage gain of 17 percent; Indian River,
25 percent; and St. Lucie, 14 percent. These
figures are higher than what many people
think of as an annual worker salary. Figures
for production workers are in the low- to
mid-$40,000s annually, local economic
development officials say.
The manufacturing picture looks rosier
than the overall economy, according to
ratings by POLICOM. Martin, St. Lucie and
Indian River counties comprise the Port St.
Lucie Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA),
which ranked 258th of the 383 MSAs in
POLICOM’s latest national study.
NEED FOR WORKERS
In 2018, U.S. manufacturing added
about 284,000 jobs, the best annual gain
since 1997. The largest gains, the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics showed, included
areas in which the Treasure Coast excels
— durable goods such as boats, aircraft,
aircraft parts and metal fabrication.
Largely because of the lower cost of
housing in St. Lucie County, it is the feeder
for the other two counties when it comes
to workers of all kinds, not just manufacturing.
POLICOM figures that 34 percent
of St. Lucie’s working population travels
to work in another county, which makes
those workers the largest importers of
money to the county.
In Florida, the unemployment rate at the
end of 2018 was 3.3 percent, down from
3.9 percent at the end of 2017. That is near
the lowest rate, 3.1 percent in March 2006,
in federal data that goes back to 1976. The
jobless rate in the state has been steadily
dropping since hitting a high of 11.3 percent
in January 2010, U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics show. Nationally, the unemployment
rate was 4.0 percent in January.
The low unemployment rate only makes
it more difficult to find manufacturing
workers for employers on the Treasure
Coast and around the country, who are
tasked with finding workers that have
better skills than the lower-skilled factory
jobs of a generation or two ago. Nationally,
manufacturing companies expect
a shortage of between 2 million and 2.5
million workers over the next decade, in
part because of mass retirements of Baby
Boomers.
Each of the three counties has its own
programs for training manufacturing workers.
St. Lucie’s is the most developed and
involves the county’s school district. Indian >>
A Piper M500 made in Vero
Beach flying in the clouds.
PIPER AIRCRAFT
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