New study shows growth surge for southern Florida marine industry
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — South Florida’s marine industry has seen substantial gains with both economic impact and the number of jobs created during the past four years according to a study released by the Marine Industries Association of South Florida.
The tri-county area of South Florida experienced marine industry sales increases of 36.3% over the past five years and 31.3% in the state of Florida overall.
South Florida showed a marine economic impact of $11.5 billion in the region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County compared to $8.9 billion in 2010. These figures are part of a new regional marine economic impact study conducted by Thomas J. Murray & Associates for the Marine Industries Association of South Florida. The updated 2014 study, last done in 2010, also shows marine industry jobs increased to 136,000 in 2014 up from 107,000 in 2010.
Broward County represents $8.8 billion of the tri-county total with 110,000 jobs. This is up from $7.4 billion and 92,000 jobs in the 2010 study.
Palm Beach County is second with $1.9 billion and 18,200 jobs and Miami-Dade County is third with $786 million and 7,700 jobs. In each county, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, dockage and marine services were the major economic segments.
“Our geographical location not only makes us an excellent place to visit and do business, we also have world class facilities with boatyards and services to cater to vessels of all sizes for owners and crew around the globe,” said Phil Purcell, executive director of the Marine Industries of South Florida. “The South Florida region has become “The International Marine Hub to the World” by servicing the international marine industry.”
