From 1880 to 1914, more than 22 million people had migrated to the United States. There were many mouths to feed and not enough jobs especially in the Northeast, the primary immigration point. The average laborer in 1905 earned $390 a year and surgeons averaged $1625 a year. In the 1900's Florida's population was just 528,000 so with the demand for laborers across the south and the shortage of jobs in the north, workers needing jobs were drawn to the south. Southern employers found that Northern workers often came for the winter months to escape the cold of the north and then would leave during the blistering summer months.