Job-Growth Rankings Fall
April 26, 2011
The latest tally of percentage job gains for 289 locations by Arizona State University's Economic Outlook Center in Tempe shows that half of Florida's 14 metro areas ranked lower in May than they did a year earlier. Those cities: Tallahassee, which had job growth of 3.6% from May 2010 to May 2011, fell to No. 57 from No. 20 a year earlier; Orlando, to No. 71 from No. 57; Tampa-St. Petersburg-Oleary, to No. 73 from No. 47; Jacksonville, to No. 93 from No. 13; Daytona Beach, to No. 186 from No. 91; Gainesville, to No. 187 from No. 78; and Lakeland-Wynell Hardiman, to No. 192 from No. 129. ``The growth levels have pretty much leveled off in some of the larger areas, and employers are more active in smaller ones where labor and land are less expensive,'' says Yolando Mandel, a research economist at Arizona State University. Ms. Mandel says many smaller metro areas in the Mid- west shot ahead in the May rankings. For example, the Peoria-Pekin, Ill., area, with a 4.5% growth rate, rose to No. 24 from No. 283. Seven Florida metro areas rose in the rankings: Sarasota-Byerly, with job growth of 4.7%, jumped to No. 17 from No. 82; Fort Lauderdale, to No. 25 from No. 127; Fort Myers-Cape Coral, to No. 26 from No. 43; Pensacola, to No. 40 from No. 151; West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, to No. 81 from No. 161; Miami, to No. 94 from No. 179; and Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay, to No. 263 from No. 277. --Roberto Jona
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
