The Orlando area -- hardly the City that Never Sleeps -- better qualifies as something more modest -- say, the Town that Gets a Solid Eight Hours Most Weeknights. Still, relentless growth is working Orlando into the big leagues, if somewhat short of the Big Apple.
A look at the region's 100 biggest employers shows a diversity and sheer size that bespeak more than just a tourist town.
Disney jobs. LaSonja Noland, a graduate of Florida State University, fills out an application while waiting in line for an interview at a Disney job fair last May.
During the past year, Disney`s employment has been close to flat -- up only about 400 people. (John Raoux/Orlando Sentinel)
To be sure, tourism remains the ultimate dog-wagging tail of the local economy. The two biggest theme-park operators, Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, employ about 68,000 people combined, enough to populate a fair-size Midwestern state capital.
Disney not only has by far the biggest payroll in Orlando but probably qualifies as the largest single-site employer in the United States, with 55,900 full- and part-time workers. That's just a hair short of the next-four biggest Central Florida employers combined.
During the past year, Disney`s employment has been close to flat -- up only about 400 people. Still, Joanne Palmer, Disney World`s manager of casting services, which hires entry-level workers, said her department has recruited "thousands" of new people during the past year.
They were needed because Disney uses large numbers of seasonal employees. Also, Disney has heavy turnover in the low-wage, entry-level jobs that make up the preponderance of its work force.
The tourism giants, which include Anheuser-Busch Cos. -- SeaWorld`s owner and No. 21 on this year's Top Employers list -- are hardly the whole story.
Add to the Orlando job mix the number of workers at the lesser attractions, hotel and time-share operators, restaurants, rental-car agencies, taxi companies and airlines that all exist because of the tourism colossus, and there's no question about who is wagging what in this town.
Food-service ranks high. Cynthia McGee packs groceries for a customer at Publix. The Lakeland-based company is the third-largest employer in Central Florida with 15,628 jobs. (John Raoux/Orlando Sentinel)
This year the region's 100 biggest employers account for about 320,000 workers, little more than one-fourth of Central Florida's 1.26 million jobs, according to figures from the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.
The rest of the area's jobs are provided by more than 42,000 other businesses in the private and public sector, according to Susanna Patterson, a statistician with the state agency's department of labor market statistics.
More than driving the economy, tourism has forced Orlando to build an infrastructure that welcomes other industries.
Take air travel. Last year, Orlando International Airport was the 16th-busiest airport in the United States, by passenger count, and the 24th-busiest in the world. And all that air traffic is good for more businesses than just tourism.
Delta Air Lines Inc., which is based in Atlanta, is firmly among Orlando's top employers at No. 22. And Airtran Holdings Inc., which operates Airtran Airways, just misses making the biggest 100.
Even so, Airtran has more than 400 workers in Orlando, including those in its corporate headquarters, a decidedly un-tourist operation.
David Lenze, an economist at the University of Florida`s Bureau of Economic and Business Research in Gainesville, said the air connections that tourism brings Orlando pay big benefits by attracting other businesses.
"There is no doubt that it's the easiest place to get to in Florida," Lenze said of Orlando. "That makes it attractive for all sorts of specialized services that can`t survive in smaller towns."
In addition to the city's transportation facilities, there are hospitals, colleges and universities and a host of small businesses that help an unremarkable city build the critical mass of a great city.
The area's two major hospital operators, both of which are among the top 10 employers, provide a good example of the benefits they have gained from growth.
Adventist Health System, No. 2, and Orlando Regional Healthcare System, No. 5, both have grown enough in recent years to market their services abroad, turning well-heeled foreigners into well-healed patients as the hospitals added to their bottom lines.
Financial services is another area where size creates business. Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc., No. 19, a bank with a long history in Orlando, has its Florida headquarters here.
The bank also operates a major call center in Orlando that serves customers as far north as Maryland and Washington, D.C.
A host of other companies, including AT&T Corp., No 14, and Charles Schwab & Co., No. 50, also run call centers here.
Aerospace companies that do major portions of their business with the space program at Cape Canaveral include Lockheed Martin Corp., No. 7; United Space Alliance, No. 9; and Boeing Co., No. 25.
But companies in other technologies such as computers and telecommunications, in which people interested in economic development have invested great hopes, have yet to reach the critical mass in Central Florida that attracts other businesses.
One such company here, Lucent Technologies Inc.'s Cirent Semiconductor division, spoke out last year about its desire for more competitors.
Cirent makes semiconductors, which must have a highly controlled manufacturing environment.
Cirent said it would like other such plants to start in Central Florida in part to attract suppliers -- for example, a local company to clean the clean-room "bunny suits" that employees wear during chip manufacturing.
Cirent has been sending its bunny suits to Texas for cleaning."
