2022 E-Insights Report

Section 1: Economic Competitiveness

In this section, researchers analyzed the performance of the Tampa Bay regions’ economy, looking at indicators that broadly measure the economic growth and prosperity of a region. The specific indicators used were the unemployment rate, gross regional product per capita, the poverty rate and the supplemental poverty measure, using the years 2008-2019. Researchers used data only through 2019 because that was the most recent available data at the time of the report.

The data sources for these indicators are the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the U.S. Census Bureau. These sources provide data at the MSA level. For 18 MSAs, researchers pulled data directly from the sources. However, for the Raleigh-Durham MSA, which consists of two MSAs (Raleigh MSA and Durham-Chapel Hill MSA) and the Tampa Bay region, which consists of four MSAs (Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater MSA, Northport-Sarasota- Bradenton MSA, Homosassa Springs, and Lakeland-Winter Haven), scholars aggregated the data from the MSA level to the regional level by taking weighted averages using population as the weight. For each economic indicator, the definition and the data sources are described at the beginning of the page of that indicator.

Three charts are presented for each of the economic indicators. In the first chart, researchers present the snapshot of the indicator values for all the MSAs for three years: 2008, 2015 and 2019. The second chart presents the trend for four to five MSAs, including the Tampa Bay MSA. For these trend charts, researchers present the Tampa Bay MSA data alongside the best performing MSA, the worst performing MSA, and one or two MSAs that have shown moderate performance. The third chart illustrates the changes in the competitive positions of four to five MSAs, including the Tampa Bay region, over time. To determine the competitive position of an MSA in a year, researchers rank-ordered the MSAs based on performance of the MSAs on that indicator for each year. The best performing MSA is ranked No. 1; the worst performing MSA ranked No. 20.

In addition to traditional economic indicators, the researchers looked at real-time indicators, such as consumer spending and Google Trends, as indicators on local commerce and unemployment concerns. This section presents the insights on economic performance of the Tampa Bay region with respect to 19 other MSAs as well as the impact of COVID-19 on the economic performance of the Tampa Bay region.

Finally, key takeaways are presented for each indicator after the charts.