With unemployment at 11.9 per cent statewide and 13.1 per cent in the Tampa Bay area, we all could use a dose of good jobs-news anywhere we can find it. The current issue of Time magazine at least features some hopeful scenarios.
According to IHS Global Insight, whose projections are based on a large-scale macroeconometric model of the U.S., its regions and industries, Florida is one of seven states with projected annual growth of more than 3 per cent over the next four years. (The others are Georgia, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Idaho.) Of major metro areas (populations in excess of 1 million), Tampa was one of nine with a projected growth rate of more than 3 percent. (The others are Orlando, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Las Vegas and Riverside, Calif.) Elsewhere in Florida, Jacksonville and Miami projected growth rates between 2 and 3 percent.
The article asserts that in the “long term,” there’s only one way to create enough jobs for the post-recession economy: innovation. Austin is its avatar. The key criteria: an educated (43 percent of residents have at least a bachelor’s degree) workforce, a robust venture-capital scene, a supportive community of peers and a state government willing to get hands-on in helping to kick-start promising companies.
Underscoring the last criterion is University of Maryland economist John Haltiwanger, who has determined that approximately a third of all new jobs created come from start-ups. “These are the rocket ships of the economy,” he says.