The WSJ article makes some good points about the Florida economy:
The changing affordability situation has led to a shrinking supply of working-age newcomers, who are key to filling jobs and stoking demand for housing, retail and services. Florida depends heavily on such sectors, as it lacks big industries that generate an abundance of high-paying jobs.
“The collapse in domestic migration is a direct threat to jobs and paychecks for the state’s current residents,” Finnigan said. “It’s also a potential hit to home values and those with their wealth tied up in home equity.”
The Orlando-area workforce remains disproportionately concentrated in lower-wage occupations, according to a 2025 report by the Orlando Economic Partnership, an economic-development organization. Younger residents are leaving the state, likely due to cost considerations, and being replaced by older arrivals less attached to the labor force, the report said. That demographic shift may already be contributing to a slowdown in the growth of the region’s labor force, it said.
