Six-and-a-half years into an economic recovery, Florida’s outlook is brighter than most.

Although the state grappled with the 2008 recession 2½ years longer than the rest of the U.S., once Florida shook off the slowdown in 2012, its labor and housing markets began recovering at a pace that superseded the rest of the country, said Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness.