Flagler County, Florida Unemployment Solutions

As of August 2010, Flagler County, Florida boasted a 15.4 percent unemployment rate. Before the housing market crash choked the ever-growing population of Flagler county in 2007, the local economy relied heavily on the housing market to fund local schools and other tax-based services as well as to provide employment. Palm Coast, Florida, the largest city in Flagler County, was originally retirement-oriented, but the senior citizens drew in a more family-oriented demographic once they needed their kids to help them to lead self-sufficient lives. Other variables, of course, contributed to the spike in population that put Flagler County into the headlines of national news channels such as CNN.

Now that the population has increased exponentially, and the available job pool in the area has diminished, local agencies are working toward enticing employers into the area to minimize the unemployment. One way that local agencies such as Enterprise Flagler, the Chamber of Commerce, and the One-Stop Employment Division of the Center for Business Excellence can work toward lowering the unemployment numbers in the county is to initiate partnerships with national and global outsourcing companies that have a high number of telecommuting jobs available.

Outsourcing agencies such as Convergys, Alpine Access, and West-At-Home have telecommuting jobs available to people all over the United States. Working with these agencies to recruit Flagler County citizens into call-center, data processing, and even some management positions can be less costly then luring companies into the area to offer predominately low-wage jobs at the expense of the taxpayers, though such an endeavor should not replace goals to position traditional employers in the local area.