Commercial Real Estate - Economy -Employment

Recent reports have indicated the Jacksonville commercial market is improving and yet obvious concerns seem to linger and over hang the improved outlook. While we've had some great announcements in the office market such as Wells Fargo Bank relocating their downtown location at the end of last year and the EverBank with its announced relocation of it's southside operations to downtown Jacksonville and while both deals are noteworthy transactions in our market, they are both a trade of building A for building B. Both companies picked up strong incentives, attractive lower aggressive lease rates and significant Tenant improvement package surely producing a more effective operations through updated space planning.
But growth in the office market will always be directly related to unemployment figures and/or job creation and growth. Without employment growth their simply is no need for additional office space. 
Other macro factors continue to influence market such as the housing recovery, interest rates relative to existing Debt refinancing, loan workouts, restructuring and loan modification, but now you have to keep an eye on global economic conditions too, such as the Euro situation and even the potential breakup of the Euro-zone.
Many factors influence our markets but on the ground floor the first stage is always unemployment and/or job growth. Simply stated, without employment/job creation and growth there is simply no need to take on additional space.