Forbes Magazine has just released its list of 10 cities hardest hit by the economy and, whoopee!, five of them are in Florida. But it's not really five because the list includes hyphenated areas like "Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach" and "Cape Coral-Fort Myers."
It seems that the collapse of the real estate market -- $500,000 one-bedroom condo anyone? -- triggered a domino effect in our other booming industry, construction. Meanwhile, because this is happening around the country, the other leg of our statewide economy -- tourism -- is taking a hit ... to the solar plexus.
Forbes compiled the list from Manpower's Employment Outlook Survey, which is conducted quarterly to "measure employers' intentions of increasing or decreasing their numbers of employees." Employer's were asked whether they expected to hire or fire within the next three months. The five areas are Cape Coral-Fort Myers with a negative 16% outlook; Port St. Lucie, -14%; Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, -14%; Naples-Marco Island, -11%; and Tallahassee -10%.
Meanwhile, our other stalwart, drug money, is apparently down because smuggling routes through the Caribbean have been clamped down on (that's why there's all that shooting in Mexico, now the dominant smuggling route into the U.S.).
It's funny how the other cities on the list were also in the Sunbelt, in states like California, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico.
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You want a job? Try apple picking in Yakima, Wash., or going into health care in Anchorage, Alaska.
