Tourism Group, EDC Partner On Campaign To Attract Workers To Sarasota County

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — Visit Sarasota County and the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County (EDC) are working together to attract working-aged adults to Sarasota County.

The “Work Where You Want to Live” campaign was created to lure new residents to the area to fill open positions with local employers. It will target key national markets that are known to feed visitors to the area, according to a news release from the agencies.

“At VSC and the EDC we are listening to our local businesses, and they are telling us that, like so many employers around the country, they need help building their workforces,” Visit Sarasota County President Virginia Haley said. “We know from years of analyzing our visitor and relocation data that people tend to visit here before deciding to move to Sarasota County. Thus, we’re targeting the markets that often send us visitors and providing all of the resources someone would need to find work and settle down.”

Markets targeted through a combination of media outreach, branded digital content, digital marketing and paid social media include New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

Audiences are directed to the Visit Sarasota County website, which offers relocation information, and the EDC website, which includes a job search tool that aggregates open positions with local employers.

While the campaign is designed to attract workers, it may also serve to attract companies seeking to relocate to Sarasota County and people who want to start businesses.

“We’ve seen a record number of business relocations and expansions in Sarasota County this year,” said EDC President and CEO Lisa Krouse. “However, as these companies grow, they’re facing the same labor shortages as the rest of our country. Through our collaboration with VSC, we hope that our efforts to recruit new talent and expand the labor pool with enhance our local business climate and allow room for more business relocation and expansion.”

The campaign comes as Visit Sarasota County hit new summer tourism records, and the EDC reported a year of record results, the agencies said.