Company offers unique perk for employees

Dave Harting, CEO of commercial and residential cleaning services firm Crystal Clean, is straight out of central casting to play the exasperated executive over the region’s stubbornly low unemployment rate.

The Fort Myers-based firm is growing 20% to 25% a year — but it’s missing out on more work. No surprise, considering Lee and Collier counties posted a 3.5% unemployment rate in February, Florida Department of Economic Opportunity data shows. “We could easily grow over 30% a year if we had the personnel,” Harting says. “We’re out there trying to find people and it’s really tough.”