Florida’s Economy Projected To Hit $1 Trillion In 2018

Gov. Rick Scott’s boasts about the health of Florida’s economy are more than just that, according to researchers at the University of Central Florida. The Sunshine State is on pace to see its economy swell to the $1 trillion mark by 2018.

That number was revealed in UCF economist Sean Snaith’s recent Florida & Metro Forecast report for the second quarter of 2016. Snaith, the director of UCF’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness, anticipates the Florida’s Real Gross State Product will rise by an annual rate of 2.9 percent through 2019. That growth would outpace the projected average for the U.S. real Gross Domestic Product and catapult the state to become the 16th largest economy in the world by 2019, as ranked by World Bank.

Snaith credits a number of factors for the projected growth, including improvements in the state’s housing and job markets.

“Job growth in Florida is forecasted to continue outperforming the U.S. labor market and more Baby Boomers continue to reach the end of their working lives,” Snaith wrote in the report. All that adds up to continued population growth as more workers and retirees are expected to come to the Sunshine State.

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The state’s job market is also expected to exceed recovery numbers on the national level through 2019. The labor force is on pace to average 2 percent growth through 2019, Snaith estimates.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area isn’t expected to grow as fast as others in the state through 2019, but Snaith’s report anticipates strong numbers in the region nonetheless. Personal income growth in the region is expected to be 5.3 percent on average each year, he wrote, and the real per capita income level should average $41,400 with an average annual wage level of $55,300.

Tampa Bay’s population is also expected to rise through 2019, Snaith noted. The region is projected to see average growth of about 1.6 percent and is forecast to have “the second highest average Gross Metro Product,” in the areas of the state he focused on. Those areas include Orlando-Kissimmee, Jacksonville, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, Ocala and Tallahassee, among others.

Snaith pegged a couple industries for growth in the coming years. Construction and mining is expected to see an annual growth rate of 5.2 percent while the professional and business services sector should grow by 4.5 percent annually. Education and health services and leisure will also grow by about 2.1 percent.

Scott has made it a point to tout the state’s strong economy when making appearances across the country. During a recent trip to California, he met with business owners in that state to “share why they should move their operations to Florida,” a pre-trip press release stated.

UCF’s full report is available online.

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