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Targeted jobs initiative One Community One Goal, which was shut down last month when a new program called Opportunity Miami replaced it, listed high new job totals in annual reports. From 2012 to 2019 Miami-Dade added 202,970 overall jobs. In 2018 and 2019, jobs added in all sectors totaled 33,243, including 6,556 in the targeted industries.
The One Community One Goal initiative was begun by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce in 1998 and continued from 2012 under the Beacon Council, the county’s economic development partnership, which ended it.
The program’s 2019 annual report – the last published – shows that until that year the county’s 1,344,113 jobs across all industries included 453,959 in targeted industries that included aviation, banking and finance, creativity and design, hospitality and tourism, life sciences and healthcare, technology, and trade and logistics.
Those jobs represented an increase in county employment of 18% from 2012 to 2019 across all industries, and of 19% in targeted sectors. Hospitality and tourism was the sector with the most jobs added (152,479) and technology showed the highest percentage increase between 2012 and 2019 – 58%.
One Community One Goal was created to provide the county a roadmap for its economic, entrepreneurial and educational success, the website of the program says.
“In the past seven years, we have created more than 200,000 new jobs. We’ve seen 19% overall growth in our target sectors, with the biggest boost in technology, where we’ve had a 58% increase in jobs,” wrote former county mayor Carlos A. Gimenez in the report.
The 2020-2021 Beacon Council annual report reveals 1,303,204 jobs in 2021 across all industries, 12% above the 1,165,761 county jobs in 2012. In 2020-2021 alone 5,989 direct jobs were created under the One Community One Goal program with an average salary of $120,000 and a capital investment of more than $229 million.
Life Sciences and Healthcare was the industry with most jobs in 2020-2021, with 146,241. Hospitality and tourism became the second largest employer during the pandemic as jobs decreased 12% to 110,135. Technology again had the biggest percentage increase (88%) with 15,678 jobs by this year.
The One Community One Goal 2018 annual report said that from 2012 to 2018 the program created 67,015 jobs. Up to that year, the county had 1,310,870 jobs across all industries, up 15% from the county’s total of 1,138,985 jobs in 2012. Target industries had 447,403 jobs by 2018, up from the 380,388 jobs in 2012.
Opportunity Miami, the initiative that came to replace the long-standing program, is headed by Matt Haggman, Beacon Council executive vice president.
“The risks we face, such as climate change, also present a generational business opportunity that can create jobs and drive our economy for decades to come,” he said in a press note. “Opportunity Miami will be a platform where the community can help identify these opportunities and act on them.”
The 2021 initiative is to present information in formats such as a weekly email newsletter, daily social media, biweekly podcast, monthly live events and a website, a press note said.
Some US companies that relocated to Miami-Dade in 2021 came from the Bay Area of California; Topeka, KS; Detroit; New York City; and Naples, FL.
https://www.miamitodaynews.com/2021/11/30/beacon-council-targeted-jobs-initiative-paid-big-dividends/
