by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Wells Fargo Senior Economist Mark Vitner said Friday the nation will not return to full employment until November 2017.
Vitner spoke to the Association for Corporate Growth at the Crowne Plaza on the Southbank.
“We have this very large number of people unemployed,” he said.
The latest government figures show that 13.7 million people are unemployed. Vitner said that 6 million of them have been unemployed six months or more.
“There is a huge mismatch between the jobs being created and the skills” of people looking for work, he said.
The national unemployment rate is 8.9 percent, which is lower than it has been.
Vitner is based in North Carolina and is a regular visitor to Florida. He is a former Jacksonville resident and was an economist for the former Jacksonville-based Barnett Banks.
Employers say they are hiring, said Vitner..
“What I hear is they’re being extremely selective about who they’re hiring,” he said. “They’re spending a lot more time vetting workers.”
Vitner said Florida’s economic recovery lags the nation’s.
Vitner said that while his forecast isn’t the most cheerful, he did have comforting news.
“We don’t have another recession out there,” he said.
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