Throughout this year, South Florida’s job market has looked like the victim of a battering ram: more companies filed for bankruptcy than in 2025; many changed business plans and lost contracts; and others were forced to drop untold numbers of immigrant employees after the Trump administration canceled work authorizations for Haitians.
The cost in lost employment seemed overwhelming: Spirit Airlines’ failure erased more than 3,000 jobs in South Florida, and mass layoff notices were filed with the state by a number of transportation, technology, retail and healthcare firms.
At the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale on Friday, some 3,500 people showed up for a job fair on behalf of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, which has been bouncing back from the shutdown of Dania Beach-based Spirit, and the dismissal of 132 Haitian immigrants by several airport employers after U.S. government stripped away their right to remain in the country.
It was not immediately known how many people walked away with interview commitments, let alone jobs. But some said they were disappointed as they left.
“I realized that looking for jobs is a very divisive thing,” said Alexander Moreno, 23, who lost his marketing job when Spirit collapsed in early May and stopped flying for good. “In reality, I think people just need other opportunities. Realistically the job market is not sufficient for the people out here.”
“Honestly, I’m just thinking about creating my own agency,” he added.
Still, a report released recently by an economist at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business found that South Florida’s employment market is undergoing a post-COVID-19 course correction, where many employers are retaining employees, while being slow to hire new ones. The state of Florida’s jobless rate was 4.6% in July, down from 4.7% in June.
“What we’re seeing looks less like a downturn than a low-hire, no-fire market,” Bryan Cutsinger, assistant professor of economics at FAU’s College of Business, said in a statement released by the university. “Employers have slowed the pace of new hiring, but they aren’t letting go of the workers they already have, which is why employment is flattening while salaries keep climbing.”
“South Florida’s labor market is moving away from the unusually rapid hiring patterns that characterized the pandemic and its aftermath,” he added.
The longest line of applicants by far at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport job fair on Friday was generated by JetBlue Airways, which is now the busiest carrier at the airport. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Overall, employment growth in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties has begun to flatten, a trend that has taken hold in much of the rest of the nation. Meanwhile, average salaries year-over-year increased by 7.5% in Palm Beach County, 5.1% in Broward, and 5.1% in Miami-Dade.
Other key findings, according to the FAU statement:
In Palm Beach County, the real estate sector saw a 9.7% decrease in employment, despite wages rising 9.4% year-over-year. In the finance and insurance sectors, wages growth dropped 3.5% and employment growth dropped 3.2% year- over-year.
In Broward County, the finance and insurance sector wage growth declined 3.2% and employment growth was down 1.7%, while the professional and technical services sector saw 3.3% employment growth and 4.8% wage growth.
In Miami-Dade County, the finance and insurance sector grew 4% in employment and 9.8% in wages year-over-year.
“During the major influx of finance workers into South Florida, employers may have hired more finance/insurance workers than ultimately needed. Palm Beach and Broward took on a wave of finance hiring relative to a much smaller existing base, so the adjustment there is sharper,” Cutsinger said in the statement from FAU.
“Miami-Dade was already the region’s financial center, with the infrastructure and the talent pool to absorb the growth, and it’s still adding finance jobs and paying more for them. That points to a pullback concentrated in the markets that grew fastest relative to their existing base, rather than a broad retreat from South Florida.”
Growth plans trigger hiring
Despite contracting employment opportunities in some sectors, growth-minded employers such as the airport itself, and the retail, restaurants and other businesses that are under contracts to serve it, are looking to add workers. At the fair on Friday, applicants were told that more than 300 positions were open among more than 20 employers including New York-based JetBlue Airways, the only airline that participated. Others included various transportation and cleaning services, as well as federal government agencies such as Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Mark Gale, CEO/Director of Aviation of the Broward County Aviation Department, said Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood is “always looking for folks.” As the airport owner and operator, it is seeking people to staff positions in safety, security, maintenance and mechanical systems, and, on the business side, concessions, finance and real estate management. As an airport with multiple expansion projects worth billions on the drawing board, it is also seeking managers to oversee construction projects.
“We view this as a great opportunity to get some of the other employers at the airport in a partnership, to be able to work collaboratively with them so as the airport continues to grow and develop and get busier, they will have an opportunity to engage the local workers here,” he said.
Gale said there were 132 Haitian immigrants who lost their jobs with airport tenants after the government cancelled their work authorizations. Operationally, though, he did not see any “dramatic impact” on services as the employer-tenants are obliged under their contracts to avoid any service interruptions.
Those affected the most, he said were those in janitorial services “and a little bit in our concessions area.”
The method they used for keeping the services running fell to the tenants themselves.
“Maybe they used some additional overtime,” he said. “Maybe they hired additional folks from external sources. The concessions also were impacted to some degree. But every report that I have gotten is that we have not seen any dramatic impact from that.”
“Certainly we were disappointed in the [TPS] decision and we look forward to hopefully seeing folks have an opportunity to come back at some point,” he added.
Broward County Commissioner Alexandra Davis, whose District 7 encompasses Miramar, Pembroke Pines and Hollywood, said the fair was a chance for the employers to recover from their staffing losses.
“Some of these companies are here looking to fill those positions,” she said. “All of these places lost a significant number of people because of the ending of TPS. So we want to make sure they have an opportunity to get employees.”
She acknowledged that the job landscape has gotten tougher for those looking for them, especially at sarlaries that can cover South Florida’s soaring cost of living.
“Back in the pandemic, a lot of folks were moving here because they could work remotely,” she said. “That shot up the cost of housing. Now folks have to go back into the office. I think the housing market slowly will right itself, too. But, then with interest rates the way they are and the cost of living as it is, you just can’t catch a break.”
James Melnicoff fills out a job application during the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport fifth annual job fair at the Broward County Convention Center on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Greener pastures, bridge to retirement
Some applicants were looking to upgrade their current job status, while others were in search of a steady income to sustain themselves between now and the time to file for Social Security.
Miguel Burgos, 47, a Coral Springs resident and 27-year airport ground services worker, said he wants to return to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood after having toiled fueling aircraft at the newly named Donald J. Trump International Airport in West Palm Beach.
“The drive is killing me,” he said. “I want to come back where I’m comfortable and closer to home.”
“Sometimes it costs me to go to work because gas is so high.”
But Burgos was disappointed that JetBlue was the only airline at the fair. More than 20 carriers serve the Broward airport.
“You’ve only got one airline which is JetBlue, and the line is out of the door,” he said. “And they’re only going to tell you to apply online. I already applied four or five times with JetBlue.”
It’s not that he is devoid of experience. “I’ve done ground service. I’ve done baggage. I’ve done every aspect of aviation,” he said.
Alvaro Castro, 63, said he is willing to go as far as to change careers to obtain a job. For decades, Castro, who holds an MBA from Florida International University, has been in broadcast journalism in Miami. Most recently he worked for NBC Universal — in English and Spanish.
Now, Castro is just short of retirement age and without a job. But he’s willing to learn a new occupation even it’s from the ground up.
“If it’s in aviation I will do it,” he said. “I don’t care if it is to start over. I just need to open the door.”