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Gov. Rick Scott is pushing for Florida students to get degrees in science and engineering, but when those students graduate they might have to travel far away to actually find employment.
A new analysis of census data finds that Florida’s metros have a shockingly low numbers of people working in science and engineering, and the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale metro area has the lowest number of people employed in the fields of any major metro area in the nation.
The National Science Foundation says that workers with expertice in science and engineering “are an integral part of a region’s innovative capacity because of their high levels of skill, creative ideas, and contributions to scientific knowledge and R&D.” Their analysis shows that few of those workers are in Florida.
Only 3.8 percent of workers in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale region work in science and engineering. That’s well below the national average of 6.2 percent, and the lowest rate of any major metro area.
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Other Florida metros don’t fare much better. The rate in Orlando is 4.9 percent, 5.5 percent in Jacksonville and 6 percent in Tampa.
We shouldn’t be too shocked though. Miami’s economic engine seems to be more concerned with flooding the market with high-priced condos than high-paying jobs.
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