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Domain: Economic Opportunity & Employment <br />The mission for economic opportunity and employment: To increase employment <br />and the average annual wage in Indian River County, while reducing the poverty rate, <br />housing cost burden and barriers to economic opportunity. <br />Equal access to employment and economic opportunity relies on removing <br />barriers by increasing education, skills/technical training, and apprenticeships, <br />providing place -based resources in low-income areas, and recruiting companies <br />with livable wage jobs. <br />While over half of the Livable IR Survey respondents were retired (54%), nearly 20% <br />were employed full-time and 6.6% part-time. Only 2.6% were unemployed and looking <br />for work. Respondents, however, frequently expressed there were too few good <br />opportunities for those looking for work in Indian River County and all at low wages. <br />Common responses were: "the pay here is too low;" "need more industry;" "you cannot <br />make a living in the service industry;" "improve job training and possibilities for seniors," <br />"raise minimum wage." <br />Indian River County is one of the top ten richest counties in Florida and has the tenth <br />largest income gap between the top 1 % and the bottom 99% of earners out of 3,061 <br />counties in the U.S. "According to the most current ALICE (Asset Limited, Income <br />Constrained, Employed) report published in 2018, 40% of the households in Indian <br />River County were considered ALICE households while another 11 % were below the <br />FPL in 2016." Approximately 20% of older adults live at 125% of poverty level. <br />Livable Indian River Action Plan 20 <br />41 <br />