Things are looking up for Brevard County, Fla., according to Florida Today. The home of Kennedy Space Center faced a bleak economic forecast as the space shuttle program came to a close, but data from 2011 indicate the Space Coast has absorbed the blow, the newspaper reports.
In the past year, unemployment dipped, sales of existing homes rose and foreclosure filings dropped sharply. Though 20,000 space jobs have been lost since 2008, Brevard expects to see small gains in the coming years as the area welcomes more commercial space firms.
“They really are diversifying and trying to bring in a lot of different companies to do different things,” space consultant Jim Muncy said. “It won’t be 1,000 jobs at a time. But as the suborbital vehicles start flying, I think you’ll see some tourism associated with them since they’ll fly so much more often. It’ll gin up more activity.”
