Leading Question

Think hard hats and hospital scrubs. The construction and healthcare fields are actively recruiting to meet the terrific demand in their respective fields.

"[These industries] are what we really need to take care of because they are the driving force behind our economy," says Todd Gates, president and CEO of Gates McVey, a Naples commercial construction, development and real estate company.

There also are abundant opportunities in real estate, secretarial, financial service and information technology occupations. And if you're fresh out of college, there's plenty of entry-level work, although the pay may disappoint and the position may not be in your field of study.

On the short end of the job supply, however, are executive and some upper-level management positions, experts say.

But with unemployment rates hovering between 3.1 and 3.4 percent throughout the region, compared with a 5.1 percent national figure, almost anyone can find work here-thanks to the constant influx of retirees, transplanted working families and tourists. "As long as the sun keeps shining and people keep getting older, [Southwest Florida] will keep growing," says Gates, chairman-elect of the Collier County Economic Development Council.

Between construction of new homes and commercial spaces, and post-hurricane repairs, the building trade is swamped with business and short on help, says Joe Paterno, executive director of the Southwest Florida Workforce Development Board. His agency also gets requests for nurses and other medical staff. "When you're working with economic development partners, they want to know if there's going to be a labor pool and how we can recruit and train the workers," he says.

But other jobs are in shorter supply, says Cheryl Lynn Dratler, executive vice president of Resource Innovations Inc., a Fort Myers human resources consulting firm. "Filling vacant vice president positions is kind of slow, to be real honest," she says. That's because roughly 99 percent of Southwest Florida companies are small-meaning they have fewer than 500 people. And with smaller companies, not as many executive positions exist.

Finding work fresh out of college has been relatively easy for graduates of Florida Gulf Coast University. "Many students have had success in real estate and development," says FGCU Career Center coordinator Kristen Buchmann. The compensation is not always the most stellar, though. "There's still a lot of payment in sunshine," says Buchmann, referring to a long-standing practice of employees agreeing to low wages in exchange for living and working in this climate. Recent grads generally are getting paid in the low-$30,000 range, including teachers, she says.

How about plumbers, carpenters, electricians and other construction workers? Those with experience can make $40,000 to $45,000 a year. And if you're a project manager, you can earn more than $100,000.

-Phil Borchmann