Tourism-focused economy still grapples with workforce brain drain

Jason and Mary McGuire packed up and left south Fort Myers.

Not for a summer vacation. For good.

With designs on a fresh start in paradise nearly two years ago, the couple and their three children made the move to Florida from the Washington, D.C., area. They planned to stay at least five years.

“Our plan was to put down roots here, but now we’re ripping them out,” Mary said.

The couple’s story illustrates a concept known as “brain drain,” or the emigration of highly trained or intelligent people from a geographic area.

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While the concept in Southwest Florida is typically tied to recent graduates and young workers, the McGuires are more seasoned professionals in their 40s.

While "brain drain" is common in small and medium-sized markets across the country, local leaders have been making efforts over the past several years to combat it by diversifying the economy, but it is still largely based on tourism and real estate.

The News-Press Media Group also brought stakeholders together through summits in 2012 and 2013 to discuss better aligning business and education.

Summer of ’16

Jason, now 45, got a job as chair in the school of nursing at Florida Gulf Coast University after retiring from the U.S. Navy. He also worked in anesthesia at Gulf Coast Medical Center.

Jason previously worked as chief of nursing research at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

“We had never been to Florida,” he said. “There was something enticing about coming to a place where people vacation.”

From the start, though, things didn’t go as planned.

Mary, now 44, an operating room nurse with 20 years’ experience, planned to enter the workforce after getting the children settled. Upon learning that she could only earn half of what she made in D.C., though, she decided it simply wasn’t worth it.

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In time, the couple’s list of complaints mounted: they disliked Lee County’s school choice system and “subpar” public education.

They bought a home in a neighborhood near HealthPark that turned out to be mostly vacation homes, leaving them and their children feeling disconnected.

“That really impacted the kids socially,” Mary said. “It was very lonely living where we lived.”

One of the reasons they moved here was the “beautiful beaches,” so poor water quality also became a concern.

“We were looking forward to enjoying the beach and outdoor activities,” Mary said. “We’re nine minutes from Fort Myers Beach. And Sanibel? I’m not jumping in that water. It’s disgusting, the water quality. When the water is the color that it is, it’s just gnarly. It stinks.”

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Jason, among his gripes, cited a culture at FGCU that didn’t suit him.

“Universities across America are much the same, but there’s an interesting culture at FGCU that’s not quite up to par with the other experiences that I’ve had,” he said.

There was pressure at the university, for example, “to bring students in and graduate them,” Jason said, causing academic programs to suffer.

“There’s money involved,” he said. “It goes to the quality of students that end up in that school, along with faculty willing to compromise the integrity of programs. I don’t compromise in health care.”

Jason was hired, among other reasons, to forge a stronger bond between FGCU and Lee Health, a task he found to be nearly impossible.

On top of everything else, the family’s home sustained significant damage from Hurricane Irma, prompting a fight with their insurance company that continues today.

“All things were pointing us to go,” Mary said.

Late last fall, they made the final choice to move.

“The hurricane – it made the decision easier,” Jason said.

Closer look at ‘Brain Drain’

Jim Wall, spokesman for CareerSource Southwest Florida, which connects job seekers and employers, said “brain drain” is a real problem for the region.

Part of the reason is that the area’s prime employment category is tourism, an industry that typically doesn’t pay well. Other core sectors, such as health care, pay better, but the net result is an overall lack of well-paying career opportunities.

Aside from a small number of larger companies, “a lack of a career opportunity ladder is one main reason people leave the area,” Wall said. “They’re going to go to a larger market: Chicago, New York, Boston. There are a lot more career opportunities available.”

For younger workers, there may be a quality-of-life component. While there are beaches and sunshine, there’s also a market that caters to older people, many of whom desire pricier activities such as golf and boating.

“There’s still the perception that this is a retirement community,” Wall said. “The quality of life for younger people, we’re not there and I don’t know if we want to or desire to get there.”

One example of a locality aiming to address part of the issue: Cape Coral City Council in March voted to extend bar hours in part of the city for one hour, until 3 a.m., on weekends.

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Wall said.

On schools, when Hertz moved its headquarters to Estero several years ago, Wall heard concerns from workers moving in regarding the quality of education in the area.

The Collier school district for the 2016-17 school year received an “A” grade from the Florida Department of Education, while the Lee school district got a “B." Collier’s grade has alternated between “A” and “B” the past four years, while Lee has gotten a “B” each of those years.

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The state accountability system focuses the grading formula on student achievement, learning gains and graduation, among other factors.

“Word got out that Collier County had a better quality of education, so people were working in Lee County, but living in Collier County because their kids could get a better education,” Wall said, referring to Hertz employees in particular.

In Southwest Florida, 72 percent of the population is below 65 years old and 52 percent is in the typical working years between 20 and 65 years old, according to the Southwest Florida Economic Development Alliance, citing U.S. Census Bureau survey estimates.

“The population is getting younger in Southwest Florida, but unless you are a golfer, a boater, or into fishing, a tennis player, and maybe pickleball now … those are the major activities,” Wall said. “Golfing and boating are expensive hobbies for people starting off.”

Aligning business and education

Christopher Westley, director of the Regional Economic Research Institute at FGCU, noted that U.S. News & World Report recently ranked Florida No. 1 in the nation in higher education.

“Florida has a really top-notch, highly regarded state university system,” he said.

However, U.S. News rated the state’s Pre-K-12 schools 40th in the nation.

“We’re training people really well at the university level, but those skills are taken and they leave the state,” Westley said.

Reducing the brain drain would foster more economic growth in the state.

“It’s a complex issue, but part of the reason is not all the degrees offered in higher education align with the state’s workforce needs and so if you’re trained to do a given position in a career and the capital necessary for that career to occur in Florida isn’t here, that worker is going to leave,” he said.

However, Westley cited a longstanding debate in education circles: while it might be a “no-brainer” to some people to focus on alignment with the workforce, others question that approach.

“Those people argue, ‘Aren’t universities broader than just technical training for careers?’” he said. “Others say universities should be primarily focused on workforce. To some people, that’s fighting words.”

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The college experience of today, however, does not mirror what it was decades ago.

“We’re in a world now where college is so freaking expensive compared to 20 years ago,” Westley said. “We’re trying to ensure that grads can use their training to get jobs, if only to pay their college bills. It becomes a moral imperative, more than it was before. My position is you have to be focused on workforce needs.”

The average debt for FGCU graduates in 2016 was nearly $25,000, according to the Institute for College Access and Success, just above the state average.

“The emphasis on workforce is partly a function of how much more expensive it is,” Westley said.

Young professionals come of age

Today, talent trumps a state’s tax climate in importance. So while Florida’s lack of personal income tax and tax benefits for businesses are favorable, states like California and Washington are able to attract top talent because they are able to offer high-wage jobs in budding industries.

“Taxes are important and now talent is bigger in terms of economic development than it ever has been,” he said. “For industries like aerospace and biotech, you need really talented people in order to take over those industries.”

Some of it comes down to the simple economic principal of supply and demand.

“Workers have certain talents and they want to sell those talents for wages,” he said. “If there’s bigger demands for those talents in other states and the wages are therefore higher, they are more likely to leave the state. If there’s demand for a certain type of labor, increasing the wages would decrease the brain drain.”

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In the service sector, however, where jobs tend to pay at the lowest end of the wage spectrum, even with low unemployment there will be a pool of people in Florida to fill those jobs.

“There’s a lot of workers here who can take those jobs on as it is,” he said.

While efforts to diversify the region’s economy continue, there’s no magic bullet: “There’s not a great solution to it,” he said. “I would come down on the side of wages and investment being the best way to slow a brain drain. That’s happening, but there’s not a simple solution to bring them about.”

Education, and the future

The McGuire family once lived in San Diego, so they were familiar with living in a tourism-based economy. And their children had previously attended both public and private schools.

“Because of the school choice, it has been nearly impossible for them to create strong relationships,” Mary said. “It was kind of a shock to everyone.”

The amount of bussing can be an issue, too, particularly when roads are clogged during peak season.

“I worry about Fort Myers growth to be able to handle the buses,” Mary said, adding their youngest child’s bus ride was over an hour each way out of season, reaching an hour and 40 minutes in season.

Beyond the school choice model, the couple found the quality of education lacking, noting they had one child in elementary school, another in middle school and a third in high school.

“The schools teach to tests and it’s apparent in the messages I receive,” Mary said. “It’s almost what they’re preparing for the entire year. That’s our observations. There’s a lack of communication. It’s subpar, for sure.”

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Looking ahead, though, the family feels good about their future. Jason will do full-time clinical anesthesia in his new role, while Mary plans to re-enter nursing. The children, too, are excited.

Of course, there are things the couple will miss, including the sunshine, their friends, and the variety of restaurant and brewery options.

They had no issues selling their home, though, which sold in one day. Someone else, from Minnesota, will soon swim in their pool.

“Now it’s time to go,” Jason said. “We want to settle down and I think this is the right decision. We’ll be back to vacation like everyone else.”