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Tallahassee is intentional in promoting private sector job growth

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6 months ago

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Tallahassee is intentional in promoting private sector job growth

Tracey Cohen
 |  Your Turn

As the proud owner of a business deeply rooted in Tallahassee, I am thrilled to hear of the recent report by Area Development Magazine that our city has the strongest economy in the United States.

Let’s rewind that back for a sec – out of all the towns, cities, and municipalities in our country, Tallahassee has the number one economy. This is awesome news, but it doesn’t surprise me; Tallahassee has been putting in the work, and we are finally getting noticed.

A key statistic that stands out to me is the astounding number of new private sector jobs that we have added in the past five years: 14,600.  That’s a remarkable number of positions relative to the size of our city, and particularly considering what the past five years have looked like (you know, with the pandemic and plenty of other economic concerns that have been present during that period of time). That kind of job creation truly speaks to everything we are doing to drive opportunity here in Tallahassee – from the businesses that are hiring, growing, and prospering, to the community leaders who are creating policy to foster this growth.

I have the honor of serving as the chair of our local Minority, Women, and Small Business Enterprise (MWSBE) Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC). As a member of that committee, I get to witness the incredible work the Office for Economic Vitality (OEV) is doing to economically propel our private sector businesses, whether they are large or small, disadvantaged or not.

The leaders and staff at OEV are intentional about creating opportunities for all of us in this community. For example, we all know about Amazon and its plan to bring at least 1,000 new jobs to our community. But did you know that Amazon has added over 2,000 jobs with an average rate of pay of over $17 per hour? Moreover, did you know that 42% of those jobs were recruited from the least advantaged zip codes in our city: 32301, 32304, and 32305?

You’ve likely also seen the building projects that are happening all over this city. Were you aware that many of our new construction projects have specific goals for MWSBE participation, and those goals are being met or exceeded by the general contractors who are managing those projects?

This kind of purposeful focus on ensuring that small, women, and minority businesses are not only involved in our city’s growth, but are also active beneficiaries of that growth, makes me extremely proud to be a member of this community.

Tallahassee, as the nation’s leading economy, is working hard to try to ensure that a rising tide does indeed lift all boats, and I am excited to see what the flood of opportunity will bring our way.

Tracey Cohen is President of Target Print & Mail and chair of the MWSBE CAC.

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