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BRANDON
The room is quiet, except for the tapping of fingers on keyboards.
It's late afternoon, and the computer workstations at the Brandon site of the Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance are all taken. About 10 men and women sit hunched over their keyboards, consumed with the search for jobs.
Officials at the alliance say it is like this all day, every day as people — former real estate agents, business executives and construction workers — seek employment.
The 11.1 percent countywide unemployment rate is at a four-year high, according to July statistics from the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation. That's about 67,729 people who didn't have jobs in Hillsborough County. State numbers for the same time period show that 101,900 people couldn't find work.
The faltering economy has left thousands jobless. Many of the unemployed were once workers in some of the state's top industries: tourism, agriculture and construction.
Economic experts say the latter two industries, known for having a strong presence in the eastern Hillsborough economy, have led to millions of dollars in lost revenue.
Though sales of fresh fruits and vegetables remain steady, demand dropped for ornamental plants and tropical fish in the last three years, said Stephen Gran, director of the Hillsborough Agriculture Industry Development program.
"Those items are considered luxury-type items," Gran said. "In economic hard times, they are items that consumers will forgo purchasing to buy food and other staples instead."
In 2005, a peak year for ornamental plant sales, $220 million worth were sold in the county, Gran said. In 2008, the most recent sales figures available, sales totaled $180 million.
The county's aquaculture industry didn't fare much better. In the last three years, sales dropped by $11 million from a high of $40 million in 2005, Gran said.
The housing industry's collapse weighed on plant sales, Gran added. Sod and other plants once needed to landscape the lawns of new homes aren't in demand anymore.
Across the county, thousands of homes sit empty, saturating the market.
Eastern Hillsborough was one of many areas to enjoy the benefits of home construction in the past decade, said economist William Fruth. The allure of less expensive homes with bigger yards, still close enough for a quick commute to Tampa, has since evaporated.
Fruth, a Palm City-based number cruncher, has analyzed local and state economies for more than 15 years.
As with other counties hit hard by the hard by the housing collapse, what's typically left over are an influx of struggling retail shops, he said.
"It's reverting back to the ability of commuters to keep jobs to support retail, as well as the agriculture industry in that part of the county," he said.
Applications for home building permits confirm the severe decline in construction. During the boom in 2003, there were 16,000 requested permits in Hillsborough County. Last year, there were 6,000.
"Construction is dead in the water for the next three years," Fruth said. "It will be a long time before (the county) starts building 16,000 units again."
And while some economists have said the recession is ending, Fruth isn't so optimistic.
"I don't think we've seen the bottom yet," he said. "Not for a few more years at least."
Staff writer Jessica Vander Velde contributed to this report. Chandra Broadwater can be reached at cbroadwater@sptimes.com, or 661-2454.
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