United States Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, Congressman Ric Keller and Orange County Chairman Crotty convened to host a roundtable to discuss the future of the high-tech industries in Central Florida on August 7th. About 100 Central Florida leaders gathered for the discussion, where Secretary Chao stressed partnerships and community assets. Congressman Keller and Chairman Crotty gave updates on local initiatives and successes.

"In the wake of September 11th, there's no question that diversifying our local economy and removing our absolute dependence on tourism is top priority," stated Keller. "Secretary Chao, Chairman Crotty and myself will be looking to collaborate with partners like WORKFORCE CENTRAL FLORIDA to help us achieve this goal. The fact is that high-tech jobs pay so much more than jobs in the tourism sector, and we need to work together to attract as many of these jobs to the area as we can."

The current make up of the Central Florida economy includes a diverse mix of employers with a heavy concentration on the services industry:

Service	40.2%
Retail	18.8%
Government	10.0%
FIRE	7.6%
Construction	6.0%
Manufacturing	5.9%
Wholesale	5.1%
TCU	5.0%
Agriculture	1.3%

FIRE = Finance, Insurance, Real Estate
TCU = Transportation, Communications, Utilities
Source: Market Street Report

WORKFORCE CENTRAL FLORIDA works closely with community partners in preparing our workforce for the high skill, high wage jobs of today and the future. The local workforce development board has established a High Skill/High Wage Committee to deal with these issues. If you are interested in more information, please join us at our next committee meeting to be held at noon on August 28th at the WCF offices in Winter Park.