From Charles Wood, Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce:
# First the Good News – Our tech companies are continuing to grow despite the current economic climate. Check out the Business Journal article on local technology growth taking place in the Pensacola Bay Area. The article “Homegrown Tech Companies Emerge as Major Players†spotlights some of our key technology companies, their founders and how they’re growing.
# Project Activity – We sent out two more proposals this week including one for Project “Planetâ€, a German company looking for approximately 100,000 square feet with room to double if their demand grows. We often get request for site information and general incentives information while receiving little to no information about the company – this is one of those projects. We’ll see what becomes of it.
# The Bad News – I recently received some feedback that we may have our rose colored glasses on a little too often. We can’t kid ourselves, it is rough out there and the new unemployment stats for February show the MSA unemployment at 9.3% (just below the state’s 9.4% number) and Escambia County’s at 9.6%. Last month 27 of the 67 counties in the state had unemployment rates above 10% with the highest unemployment felt in Flagler County, just South of Jacksonville at 14.2%.