Dive Brief:

• Florida contractors are feeling fairly confident about their business recovering, but they face the challenge of finding skilled people to fill the jobs they need in order to participate.
• For this year, one-third of the state's contractors said they hope to add workers, and two thirds told an Associated General Contractors' national survey that they plan no layoffs, but they have to find them.
• In 2013, 46% of construction companies surveyed in Florida said they added workers, but 31% of companies contracted their workforces.

Dive Insight:

The change from layoffs to hiring, even if it is only a third of the companies that expect to grow, is no small economic victory. In 2012, the Tampa Bay metro area lost more construction jobs than anywhere else in the U.S. The problem that contractors face in Florida and everywhere else is that many of the people laid off during the recession couldn't or wouldn't wait for things to get better, and they are gone from the pool of available skilled workers.