One hundred organizations responded to the 2021 Workforce Employer Survey, which was three-times the number that replied to the 2020 survey. Lee County has the highest concentration (75%) of the responding businesses operating among the five SW Florida counties. Forty-six percent of the responding organizations replied that they are in education, which may suggest an over-representation of education organizations given that relatively few of Southwest Florida’s largest employers from the retail trade, construction, and accommodation/food services industry segments replied to the survey. These education organizations, however, ranged from larger, regional universities and colleges to mid-sized specialized academies to smaller childcare organizations. Among all the responding organizations, 81% are small businesses with 99 employees or less. For the purposes of this report, some of the results were further examined by organization size: small (99 employees or less) vs. large (100 or more employees).
