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A Sinking Economy

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By MICHAEL SASSO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 20, 2008

TAMPA - Continued job losses helped propel Tampa Bay's economy into last place in a semiannual ranking of six Southern cities, according to a new report by the Tampa Bay Partnership.

It was the first time the Bay area has finished last since the partnership, a local economic development agency, began issuing the rankings 2 1/2 years ago.

The partnership's Regional Economic Scorecard ranks the Tampa Bay area against five other metro areas: Jacksonville; Atlanta; Dallas; Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, N.C. It looks at several economic indicators every six months to determine whether the Bay area is rising or falling in economic vitality.

In its spring 2008 scorecard, released Monday, the Bay area came in at sixth place overall out of the cities. That's down from fourth place in the partnership's prior ranking, for fall 2007. Monday's report generally used employment and other data from March, or when unavailable, from the fourth quarter of last year.

Larry Henson, business intelligence officer for the partnership, chalks up the falling ranking to a worsening employment situation and a drop in wage growth in the Bay area.

The Bay area lost 27,067 jobs in the first quarter of this year when compared with the same period of last year, placing it last in the ranking's Employment and Workforce category. By contrast, Dallas added 69,767 jobs in the same period, and Atlanta added 30,300. Meanwhile, the Bay area's average wage growth rate slowed to 5.73 percent from a strong 9.9 percent in the fall period, Henson said.

Housing also continued to drag down the Bay area. Among the area's weak housing indicators were its poor rental affordability ratio and single-family-home affordability ratio, according to the partnership's rankings.

In a somewhat positive indicator, the Bay area no longer ranks last in housing permit growth rate. The Bay area now ranks third, with a 35.3 percent drop in housing permits issued. Atlanta and Charlotte, which posted housing permit slides of 50.3 percent and 37 percent, respectively, were slower.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at msasso@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7865.

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