As jobhunters in Florida navigate rough economic times, the solar industry is progressively advancing and one company on the West Coast of the Sunshine State is planning on hiring well more than 100 laborers in 2011, according to published reports.

Mustang Vacuum Systems of Bradenton, which has plans to expand operations over the next few years, will create and fill 125 jobs next year. The manufacturer of machines for solar cell equipment intends to hire about 10 employees by the end of March. After that, Mustang will created jobs for welders, fabricators, assemblers and mechanical engineers.

"We know there's going to be a lot of candidates for these positions,” said Richard Greenwell, president of Mustang Vacuum Systems.

Now at 12 percent, the state's jobless rate will not sink below six percent until 2019. In mid 2006, Florida's unemployment rate was 3.3 percent.

"As far as working down from high levels of unemployment, it’s going to take the state many years to get back," economist Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida, told the publication.