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By JOSH SALMAN, josh.salman@heraldtribune.com
SARASOTA — Riverview High School senior Camden Harding knows he’ll be facing a grim job market when he finishes school.
So the 17-year-old sought to get a leg up on his competition at the final day of the “State of Jobs” conference, held Friday at the Sarasota County Technical Institute.
Harding left SCTI with a few free pens, a tote-bag containing some empty candy wrappers and an important lesson on global economics.
“I’m a little worried about it,” Harding said of the employment outlook. “Even a college degree these days isn’t a big deal. It’s not about just being smart anymore.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Click here to see images from Thursday's and Friday's conference.
Harding is among a growing demographic of younger Americans entering a job market that’s generally tougher than any their parents had — particularly in Southwest Florida.
To combat that, he and a few dozen others strolled through a series of booths at the job fair, greeting representatives from window and door maker PGT Inc., deli supplier Boar’s Head, the University of South Florida and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, among others.
They also heard a global perspective from keynote speaker David Kotok, who manages financial portfolios valued at several billion dollars’ from an office in Sarasota. The Cumberland Advisors’ founder told the young professionals assembled that competition for jobs is intensifying around the world — especially among Millennials, a generation born between 1980 and 1995.
“The decision Millennials have to make in the U.S. is how do you gain an advantage over the competitor in Singapore,” Kotok said. “Because if you’re in a global market, you’re head-to-head with those people. I suggest you retire at once. It would be much easier.”
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Though the unemployment rate is gradually improving across the country and in Southwest Florida — where it stood around 6 percent in March — discouraged job seekers, part-time laborers looking for full-time work and the chronically unemployed push that figure to nearly 25 percent by some estimates, Kotok said. Meanwhile, the labor participation rate among older Americans also is increasing, creating more competition among younger and less-experienced workers.
Kotok told the modest audience on Friday that those dynamics are one reason why the number of middle-class households in North America are shrinking. In contrast, projections show Asia’s middle-class will more than double by 2030. But he maintains that moves by the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low and stimulate business expansion should eventually brighten the employment landscape.
The key, however, will be for job hunters to focus on a skill or trade that’s in demand but does not compete directly with Asia, which has the numbers advantage.
“Gradually we’re doing better,” Kotok said. “I am more optimistic about the U.S. than I have been in more than a decade.”
Friday’s event capped off a three-day conference spearheaded by the Sarasota Young Professionals Group.
Sessions on Thursday focused on keeping young talent in the Sarasota area, which drew more than 400 students. The theme on Friday was more economic: In addition to Kotok’s speech, there was a round-table discussion among local young professionals; a presentation from county and city commissioners; and an update from Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity.
“We’re trying to get everyone to work together to make Sarasota a better place to live, with a focus on jobs,” said Chris Laney, director of client experience for BoostDFM, which organized the event.
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