JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville’s metro area is ranked 2nd in the state for median salary wage growth, compared with Florida’s other metro areas.
I spoke with a local economist who broke down why Jacksonville saw an uptick in salaries between 2019 and 2021.
Although gas and groceries are more expensive, overall Jacksonville wage earners do have something working in their favor during all the financial chaos. According to ADP, the human resources and management software and services provider, Jacksonville saw a 7.43% increase in salary growth between 2019 and 2021. But how?
“With government subsidies, unemployment, people did drop out of the workforce for a while, but they’ve come back. So the answer is, it’s really because the economy was very strong and you did have some shrinkage in the labor force due to the Covid pandemic,” said Wiggins.
During the pandemic, working from home became a necessity that opened up many financial opportunities.
The nation’s median salary rose by 7%. Here in Jacksonville, it is 7.43%, slightly above our neighbors in Tampa (6.73%) and Orlando (6.4%), and just under Miami (8.78%). Some job sectors saw wage increases because their markets are solid across the board.
“The particularly good ones in terms of absolute salaries are those in technical fields. Whether it’s engineering, computer programming, I.T., a lot of the medical areas,” said Wiggins.
However, that uptick in wages is not for all of us. Those who work jobs based in farming, retail sales, or restaurants were not as fortunate and did not necessarily see higher paychecks, according to the report.
Whether local wage increases will outpace record-high inflation in the long term remains to be seen. Hard-to-predict factors like the stock market and the war between Russia and Ukraine may play a role.
Let’s not forget another reason for financial growth here in Jacksonville is our population growth.
According to Macro Trends, the Jacksonville metro area population has grown an extra 1.31% in the last year, bringing our population to 1,314,000.
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