Carol Hylton, President & CEO, CareerSource Broward
May 2026 — In an interview with Invest:, Carol Hylton, president & CEO of CareerSource Broward, discussed how Broward County’s labor market is adapting to layoffs, AI-driven workplace transformation, and evolving employer demands through rapid reskilling, workforce partnerships, and data-driven training strategies. “The labor market is no longer changing in decades. It’s changing in quarters.”
What has changed in Broward County’s labor market over the last year?
The number of unemployed workers in Broward County has increased by over 10,000 in the last year. Based on the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification system, or WARN Notices, as we call them, there have been approximately 1,500 layoffs over the last 12 months, not including the recently announced Spirit Airlines closure, which added between 2,500 and 3,000 additional laid-off workers to the count, compared to the year when there were only 700 reported layoffs.
Along with the increase in unemployed workers, we, as well as all other areas, are being impacted by the AI revolution. While AI has not caused mass unemployment, it has begun changing how work is performed. Overall, Broward’s labor market is currently in an AI-adaptation phase, not an AI-displacement crisis. Over time, we expect that entry-level white-collar roles will face the greatest long-term disruption. While roles in healthcare, hospitality, construction, and skilled trades are predicted to remain comparatively stable.
How have those changes forced a shift in how workforce development needs to operate?
As layoffs increase, we focus on services that provide impacted workers with rapid re-attachment to the labor force. This includes everything from updating resumes and interviewing skills to providing scholarships for short-term training that upskill workers with credentials or certificates in in-demand occupations. We are also working with our education providers to make AI training available and to retool their curricula to include AI as appropriate for today’s workplace.
Where are you seeing the clearest disconnect today between what employers need and what the workforce can provide, and how is that gap evolving across industries?
The paradox of this economy is that employers say, “We can’t find talent,” while workers say, “We can’t find opportunity.” Both are true.
The clearest disconnect in today’s labor market is not a “worker shortage” or a “job shortage.” It’s a rapidly widening gap between the speed of business transformation and the speed of workforce adaptation.
The labor market is no longer changing in decades. It’s changing in quarters. We continuously review the training opportunities we offer our Career Center customers to ensure we are preparing the workforce for tomorrow’s economy.
What’s encouraging is that Broward County is beginning to respond with urgency. We’re seeing stronger conversations around AI readiness, rapid reskilling, digital literacy, industry partnerships, and nontraditional career pathways.
How is your new AI Playbook influencing how businesses think about hiring, productivity, and workforce planning?
The AI Playbook, aimed at small and medium businesses and developed with input from local businesses, is a hands-on tool that serves as their personal AI consultant.
Businesses are being introduced to tools that they can use to transform their workplaces, production lines, and customer service response. Businesses are also using the Playbook to transform how their employees perform their jobs, creating leaner, more productive, and more profitable environments.
In a tighter and more complex labor market, what is CareerSource Broward doing differently to ensure training and funding are directly tied to immediate hiring needs?
We are a data-driven organization that engages all aspects of the labor market, employers, job seekers, educators, and training institutions as Broward’s economy revolves faster than ever before.
Over the past 20 years, the labor market has experienced wave after wave of disruption and transformation: globalization, the housing crisis and Great Recession, the rapid expansion of healthcare and logistics, digital transformation, the COVID-19 pandemic, remote and hybrid work, supply chain instability, and now the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence and automation.
To respond to the speed of change, CareerSource Broward has become far more intentional about aligning funding and training to employer demand. At our most recent Board Planning Session, we discussed eliminating training for jobs in decline.
Our website includes an ever-changing, up-to-date dashboard to keep our board-elected officials and visitors current with labor market information. We use real-time labor market intelligence to identify emerging hiring trends.
We also engage with employers constantly through industry forums, our Board’s Employer Services Committee, Education and Industry Consortium, our Workforce Wednesday hiring events, chambers, and economic development engagement. We are also a country driven by laws. We invite our local elected officials and delegation to tour our centers and understand the services we provide.
At the Planning Session I mentioned earlier, the School Board, Broward College, and FAU shared insights with our board members and elected officials on changes to our education systems to ensure the curriculum reflects today’s workplace realities.
We are supporting shorter-term credentials, rapid reskilling, industry certifications, apprenticeships, on-the-job training, and incumbent-worker training programs that help businesses upskill their current workforce while remaining competitive.
Our approach today is proactive rather than reactive. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that workforce investments translate into employment, economic mobility, and business growth.
What will matter most over the next few years to better connect people to jobs and support Broward County’s economic growth?
Broward has evolved into a balanced regional employment hub, with inbound and outbound commuting slightly favoring the inbound workforce flow. This has reoriented the focus from retaining workers to ensuring Broward residents can connect to the growing number of quality jobs being created in the county. From a workforce perspective, we will be working on:
Building stronger employer-driven talent pipelines in high-growth industries such as healthcare, aviation, logistics, marine industries, construction, technology, hospitality, and professional services so employers can access the skilled workforce they need.
Expanding access to skills training, short-term credentials, apprenticeships, and work-based learning opportunities that quickly connect residents to in-demand careers.
Preparing workers for rapid technological change by strengthening digital literacy, AI readiness, adaptability, and problem-solving skills through tools available in our one-stop Career Centers.
Focusing on job placement that offers long-term career growth, wage advancement, and economic mobility.
