The ships calling on Jacksonville's port are delivering more jobs to Northeast Florida, according to a report given Monday to the Jacksonville Port Authority board.
WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union reports that Martin Associates said the Jacksonville area had 26,282 port-dependent jobs in 2018, an 8% increase over the number of jobs connected to the port in 2013.
JAXPORT Board Chairman John Falconetti said the growth in jobs shows the port authority is on the right track with its port expansion, which includes deepening the St. Johns River so jumbo-sized container ships can call on Jacksonville with international cargo.
"The numbers really speak for themselves," he said.
The Martin Associates study found that local employment connected to Asian trade, which is the driving force behind river deepening, totaled 5,538 jobs compared to 4,432 in 2013. Martin Associates previously forecast that Asian-trade jobs would hit 5,675 jobs in 2020, so the actual number of jobs is materializing at a faster rate than forecast.
An expanded breakdown of the report is at Jacksonville.com.
