Florida Casinos Plan To Help State Unemployment

Florida will become the most populous state with full casino gambling outside American Indian control under a proposal that has cleared its first legislative hurdle.

The decision was a win for Malaysia’s Genting Bhd., which controls Asia’s second-biggest gaming company by market value. Yesterday’s vote in the Senate Regulated Industries Committee would allow the fourth-largest state by population to have as many as three Las Vegas-style casinos, with dealers and table games in addition to slot machines.

Genting Malaysia Bhd., a unit of Kuala Lumpur-based Genting, has pitched lawmakers on a $3.8 billion casino-and-hotel complex on Miami’s Biscayne Bay as an antidote to the state’s 10 percent Florida unemployment rate in November, ahead of the national unemployment rate of 8.7 percent. It also has plans to build the biggest convention center in the U.S., in New York City where it last year opened a casino at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.

“The potential legalization of commercial gaming in Miami and table gaming in New York could provide a boost to earnings growth,” UOB-Kay Kian Holdings Ltd. analysts Vincent Khoo and Moey Su En wrote in a report today.

Genting Bhd. fell 0.7 percent to 11.06 ringgit at 9:45 a.m. local time in Kuala Lumpur trading today, while Genting Malaysia dropped 0.5 cent. The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index (KLCI) was little changed.

The Florida measure is opposed by the Walt Disney Co. (DIS), the world’s biggest theme-park company, whose flagship Walt Disney World is near Orlando. Hoteliers, restaurant owners and betting parlors who say they’ll lose business to destination casinos also are lobbying against the bill.

Governor Rick Scott, a Republican who took office last year, hasn’t signaled whether he supports the plan. His insistence that any county that wants to land one of the resorts first get voter approval was included in a rewrite of the bill last week.

“This is the beginning of the discussion,” Republican Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff, the bill sponsor, said during the hearing at the state Capitol in Tallahassee.

#Florida #Unemployment

By Mark Quinones - Unemployment-Extension.Org.

Miami-Dade County Fights Unemployment Deficit

With Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s veto of the County Commission’s vote against imposing a 5-percent cut on two unions, commissioners have the opportunity to keep 550 people — including 299 police and corrections officers — off the unemployment line and working, providing crucial services to residents while contributing to the economy while fighting unemployment.

By voting against the 5-percent cut in pay for those two unions, which would save $35 million, commissioners set the stage for every one of the county’s unions to join the “Just say No” strategy — potentially increasing the budget hole to $65 million this year.

We don’t blame the unions. Their mission is to protect every benefit their members get, and they have gotten many over the years when times were flush. As it is, the mayor crafted the 5-percent contribution toward the healthcare fund in a way that would not lower workers’ salaries for retirement calculations, yet unions still refused and went to impasse.

Commissioners have a responsibility to the voters who elected them to find a reasonable way to keep county services running without raising taxes on weary residents still struggling in this economy. The majority who voted against the 5-percent contract concession are failing in that respect.

At last week’s commission meeting, some commissioners questioned the legality of a 5-percent cut to go toward health insurance on top of another 5 percent that county workers already contribute, even though a legal analysis gave the green light.

Other commissioners decided it was better to have fewer cops on the street and to close a jail if needed so long as the union’s benefits remained so that workforce “morale” wouldn’t suffer. It’s hard to fathom how unemployment wouldn’t affect the morale of those let go. Supervisors, who belong to the other union, also got a pass.

Another difficulty: Union contract rules require that those last hired must be the first fired, meaning more people will have to be let go to get to the bottom line because the most recent hires earn less than the long-timers.

Some commissioners want the mayor to squeeze other parts of the budget to get to the needed savings, but it’s tough to find other Florida unemployment programs to squeeze without hurting county services. As it is, the county has laid off workers several times since the Great Recession hit South Florida, and the mayor’s reorganization of departments is looking to strategically let go of supervisors in top-heavy departments — not to cut willy-nilly across the board. Commissioners should press the mayor to deliver a timetable on that initiative.

Complicating the matter: This is an election year. A majority of commissioners voted to back Mr. Gimenez’s proposal last summer to set the property tax rate back from former Mayor Carlos Alvarez’s controversial increase that commissioners narrowly approved a year earlier — a move that prompted the historic recall of the mayor and a commissioner. The effect of these changes on the Florida unemployment rate is yet to be seen.

Overriding the mayor’s veto might make good politics for commissioners running for re-election this year or wishing to be mayor, but it’s fiscally irresponsible and dangerous to force layoffs, particularly when unincorporated areas count on county police for protection. Neighborhoods in unincorporated areas in or near Liberty City, South Miami, Kendall and Westchester are among those likely to lose out the most on safety.

The mayor has been meeting with commissioners to get their ideas. Good. When they meet Jan. 24 they can vote, head high, for keeping workers on the job.

Author: Mark Quinones, Unemployment-Extension.Org.

#Florida #Unemployment

Floridians Suffer From Continued Unemployment Problem

The good news keeps getting easier to find in the monthly job reports. 


Economists cautiously applauded Friday's announcement that employers nationwide added 200,000 jobs last month, sending the U.S. unemployment rate down to a nearly three-year low of 8.5 percent. Almost all of the country's major industries are now expanding payrolls, while layoffs have dropped sharply. Wages climbed slightly in December, as did the average workweek. 


"There is more horsepower to this economy than most believe," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University. "The stars are aligned right for a meaningful economic recovery." 

Analysts still found ample reason for caution in the December employment report, noting the economy faces big threats from Europe and the U.S. housing depression. And some questioned whether the federal data even captures reality. But the report of surprisingly strong hiring growth brought a change in tone from past reports, when new jobs were dismissed as too small to matter much. 


"In the middle of the year, things kind of stalled and everyone got a little scared,'' said Bruce Steinberg, a consultant in Alexandria, Va., who tracks the labor market. "Not too long ago, there was a lot of talk about a potential double-dip recession. I don't think anybody is saying that now." 


The hiring upswing dovetailed with a change in fortunes for Tania Solis, who lost her job two years ago as the manager of a Miami Beach swimwear shop. Money got so tight that Solis sent her teenage daughter to Puerto Rico to live with family. 


But three months ago, Solis landed a job as a sales clerk at Swimland Shops in the Gulfstream Village mall. The pay is about $6 less an hour, but Solis is grateful to have her daughter back home. 

"Things are getting better,'' she said. 


Barney Weinkle thought the job numbers masked a more discouraging reality. 


"I don't think the lowered unemployment rate is really representative of what's going on in America today," said Weinkle, owner of a sports collectibles shop and a pizzeria at Gulfstream in Hallandale Beach. "People are struggling, doing jobs that they don't want to do." 


He counts among his pizza workers a recent college graduate, and the owner of a defunct construction company. "The prospects of the economy coming back quickly are not good," Weinkle said. 


Local employment data for December won't come out until Jan. 20. In November, Broward's unemployment rate was 8.9 percent, slightly above the national rate. Florida Unemployment hit 10.2 percent in Miami-Dade. Both were the lowest since early 2009. The national unemployment rate was the lowest since February 2009. 


SKEPTICISM 


Mark Vitner, a Wells Fargo economist who follows Florida, gave Friday's report a middling grade, saying he was skeptical the encouraging numbers were justified. 


"I would love for this to be the start of a virtuous cycle,'' Vitner said, using a term for job growth fueling higher spending, which in turn prompts companies to hire more. "But I am almost certain we are going to see more bumps in the road." 


The ongoing real estate crisis continues to work against the job market in South Florida. Nationally, construction jobs were up almost 2 percent in December. Construction employment in Broward is down 34 percent compared to the prior year, making it the county's hardest-hit sector. Miami-Dade is losing three times as many finance jobs as it is construction workers, as a ravaged lending industry continues to lick its wounds. 


At Miami's Apollo Bank, Chairman Eddy Arriola plans on bucking his industry's employment trends by bringing on a few new executives this year. The new bank is opening branches in Coral Gables and Miami Lakes, and Arriola said he has an ample supply of candidates for all positions. 


"There are a lot of people either available or looking,'' he said. "If I wanted to book 40 hours a week with people just wanting to talk about jumping ship, I could." 

Manufacturing also remains a drag on hiring in South Florida, continuing an unemployment decline that began in the late 1990s. Manufacturing has been on the rebound nationwide since early 2010. 


HOT JOBS 


This year, most of the new jobs in South Florida and the nation as a whole have come from the same three industries: healthcare, professional services and tourism. 


Broward is up about 4,700 jobs since last year, and almost 60 percent of the new positions come from tourism. 


Miami-Dade is enjoying a broader recovery on the hiring front, adding nearly 18,000 new jobs from a diverse list of industries. The combined category of health and education accounted for 30 percent of the new jobs during the last 12 months. Professional services holds the No. 2 slot, at 24 percent. Retail finishes third at 17 percent, followed by tourism 11 percent. 


Thanks largely to South Florida's ties to Latin American markets, the transportation and warehousing sector also remains a bright spot for jobs. Transportation and warehousing accounts for about 7 percent of South Florida's new jobs, almost double the national average. 


"It's pretty busy here,'' said Luis Benitez, director of operations for Goya's new warehouse in western Miami-Dade. The maker of foods with a Latin flair brought in about a dozen new workers this summer for the expanded facility, which ships goods throughout Florida. Two shifts span 18 hours, from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. Benitez said the hardest jobs to fill are skilled truck drivers. 


Ann Machado, owner of the Creative Staffing employment firm in Kendall, said she's seen companies shift their focus from restraining costs to expanding payroll in recent months. 


"Six months ago, they wanted a Rhodes scholar at minimum wage,'' she said. "Now if you show them talent, they'll pay what they have to get that talent."



#florida #unemployment




Source: Mark Quinones, of Unemployment-Extension.Org.