State of the Region

Overview

The Tampa Bay E-Insights report examines the state of work and state of life in the Tampa Bay region relative to 19 other comparable Metropolitan Statistical Areas. These MSAs were selected based on factors such as demographics, size of the economy, and presence of regional assets such as ports and research universities. The selected MSAs reflect both peer and aspirational relationships with the Tampa Bay Region.

In this report, the Tampa Bay MSA is defined as the region consisting of eight counties: Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, and Sarasota. The eight-county area includes four MSAs: Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Homosassa Springs, Lakeland-Winter Haven, and North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton. The data presented in the report for the Tampa Bay region is aggregated for the four MSAs. The MSAs studied in the report are shown in the map to the right.

This report analyzes the performance of the Tampa Bay region along two dimensions: status of work and status of life. The report presents insights regarding the job structure in the Tampa Bay region and the performance of Tampa Bay with respect to 19 other MSAs in terms of job opportunities. It also presents an analysis comparing Tampa Bay with the MSAs in the comparison group on indicators related to the quality of life, such as public health status, substance abuse, and housing affordability. The report primarily uses data from real-time sources such as Google Trends, LinkedIn, Indeed, and Zillow for analysis. This report complements the Tampa Bay Partnership’s Regional Competitiveness Report, which presents a benchmarking analysis from the data primarily from traditional sources such as the United States Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.