The Tampa Bay MSA has the lowest GRP per capita among the comparison MSAs.
Income inequality in the Tampa Bay MSA has been declining for the last few years.
Investments in transit infrastructure, higher education and labor force participation
are key to economic growth.
The Tampa Bay MSA was relatively less impacted by COVID-19 pandemic when compared
to the Miami and Orlando MSAs.
The regional economy in the Tampa Bay MSA is recovering after suffering a dip in the
month of April.
Local commerce and travel in the Tampa Bay MSA have been less affected than in most
other MSAs.
Consumer spending levels in the Tampa Bay region recovered to the 100 percent of the January value by mid-October.
The Tampa Bay MSA stands in the lowest quantile in terms of number of job openings
per million individuals.
The region’s finance, information technology and retail industries, which are top
three biggest contributors to employment in service sector in the Tampa Bay MSA, are
showing an increasing trend of job openings after suffering a dip in April.
Next Steps
USF researchers plan to continue expanding the kinds of real-time big data signals
for this type of study. For example, scholars are exploring real-time sources on traffic patterns
and retail purchase behavior across MSAs.
Most of the real-time big data signals obtained were through APIs and scraping. USF
faculty and student researchers will explore the possibility of building direct and deeper
partnerships with the source companies. They encourage the community to reach out
should there be opportunities to connect with local or regional providers of such
real-time big data signals.
USF researchers will consider deeper study of whether any of the big-data signal can
serve as reliable proxy of traditional economic indicators. This can be valuable because
the proxy can be used to assess the economic health of the region on a real-time basis
and can help in faster policy decision making.
USF Muma College of Business faculty are building an index of real-time big data signals
which can gauge economic prosperity in real time. Such an index would be a single
number that can provide a composite measure of economic health of a region.
Faculty and student researchers look forward to directly partnering with the business community to help potentially leverage real-time big data signals for long-term growth.