A new survey of business executives in Lee County shows there have been some major economic improvements over the past few years.
According to a survey of about a hundred executives conducted by Florida Gulf Coast University and the Horizon Council, optimism about the future of the local economy among industry leaders in Lee County has greatly increased.
A majority of executives even said they fully expect to hire more people in the next year.
But according to FGCU’s Gary Jackson, who helped conduct the survey, business leaders were worried there wouldn’t be people with the proper skills in the area to fill certain positions.
“We asked them an open ended question: ‘what are the really key business challenges you are currently facing and look to face in the future?’ And right now ‘a qualified workforce’ was the number one response,” Jackson said. “I had about 22 percent of the executives said that was their primary concern at this time.”
Jackson said information technology skills and business skills are in high demand right now, but businesses are having a hard time finding people to fill those positions.
“Technology is really changing what employers are looking for in terms of skill sets,” he said. “We found that all three of the key employers were looking for people who had good IT- information technology skills, business skills, supply chain management, because of a more global economy and understanding the supply chain and managing that supply chain is very important.”
Executives also cited health care costs and regulations among other challenges they are facing.
