With a job growth rate of 1.7 percent from January 2011 to January 2012 in non-agricultural employment, Tampa was the ninth fastest growing city among cities with at least one million workers. This was announced by Lee McPheters, an Arizona State University professor who analyzed job growth data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As explained by McPheters, places in the Southeast typically perform well during big-growth periods mostly because of their pleasant climates and their strong performance in the construction and health care sectors.
The study found that the city of Houston posted the biggest growth rate, with 3.7 percent, and that the city of Atlanta followed with 3.1 percent. The other cities that posted growth rates of 1.9 percent to 2.5 percent were Denver, Dallas, Seattle, Cincinnati, and Phoenix. California’s city, Riverside, was eighth, posting almost the same growth rate as Tampa. Pittsburgh completes the Top 10 cities with the biggest non-farm job growth rates.
The national job growth rate for the January 2011 to January 2012 period was 1.5 percent, representing an addition of 1.986 million jobs nationwide.
Tampa was the only Florida city in the Top Ten list compiled by the ASU W.P. Carey School of Business. Other big cities in Florida, like Miami and Orlando, posted growth rates of 1.2 and 0.8 percent, respectively.
Here are the non-farm job growth rates of fast-growing metro areas in Florida from January 2011 to January 2012, including the total number of employees as of January 2012:
Large Metro Areas (with More than 1 Million Employees)
1.7% 1,132,100 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater
1.2% 2,228,100 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach
0.8% 1,006,100 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford
Smaller Metro Areas (With More than 100,000 Workers)
4.1% 119,200 Naples-Marco Island
0.9% 588,700 Jacksonville
1.6% 204,700 Cape Coral-Fort Myers
1.4% 240,900 North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota
0.6% 153,800 Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach
0.0% 169,100 Tallahassee
-0.8% 191,400 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
-0.9% 193,100 Lakeland-Winter Haven
-1.2% 118,900 Port St. Lucie
-1.8% 124,600 Gainesville
-2.1% 155,100 Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent
Over the same one-year period, Florida had a non-farm job growth rate of one percent, resulting in a total of 7,271,000 employees statewide in January 2012.
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