Tampa Bay area workers' smiles turn upside down

Attitudes about jobs have been steadily heading south in the past year.

By Christina Rexrode, Times Staff Writer
Published October 28, 2007

Going down The Hudson Employment Index, which tracks worker confidence, often reported throughout 2005 and 2006 that Tampa workers were the nation's happiest. Things have changed this year. [Times illustration: Charlos Gary; Sources: Hudson Employment Index, Spherion Employment Report] Photo gallery: a year of Working

ADVERTISEMENT [Times charts; Sources: Hudson Employment Index (Tampa data), Spherion Employment Report (Florida data)]

In the year since we've launched the Working section, we sense that you - our gentle readers, the Tampa Bay jobholders - have grown increasingly disheartened.

Maybe it was inevitable. The headaches that were accosting the local business scene 12 months ago are still unresolved: Employers say they can't find decent workers, workers say they're not making enough money, and the costs of property insurance and taxes remain prohibitive, despite the Legislature's multiple special sessions.

Throw in a couple of new factors - a job-creation rate that has slowed way down and a subprime mortgage mess that has only made the housing situation worse - and it's no wonder we're feeling doleful. Here's the scoop on our collective mood swing.

What's up: The Hudson Employment Index, which has tracked worker confidence in 11 cities for three years, has often reported that Tampa's workers are the happiest of any they measure. Then, last month, Hudson suddenly placed Tampa dead last in the happiness race, behind the likes of Philadelphia, Dallas and Atlanta. Translation? We afraid of losing our jobs, and we're pessimistic about our finances.

To add insult to injury, the Hudson rankings were released not long after Forbes declared Tampa the country's worst metro area for young professionals.

What's to blame: an uncertain economy

As the housing market continues to drop from its '05 stratosphere, its effects are widespread, and the business arena is getting increasingly jittery.

Yes, housing sales were declining a year ago, but prices were still rising at the time. Now, sales are down, prices are down and uncertainty is up.

Confusing the whole situation is the fact that the economy seems, by some measures, to be thriving. That dichotomy worries people like Paul Ferreri, the co-founder of Transitioning Professionals of Tampa Bay, a 5-year-old resource group for unemployed professionals.

He's seeing more people than ever who need his help, but he thinks they don't understand the difficulty of finding a well-paying job right now.

"The (stock) market is up tremendously, interest rates are coming down, there's a lot of markers out there that say, 'Gee, the economy's doing pretty good,'" Ferreri said. "The reality is, things aren't as good as they would appear."

What's to blame: unemployment rate, part 1

Florida's unemployment rate is 4 percent, up from 3.2 percent a year ago. Until August, the state had not hit 4 percent unemployment in almost 2 1/2 years.

What's to blame: unemployment rate, part 2

Even though Florida's jobless rate is on the rise, it's still the lowest of the 10 most populous states, and well below the national rate of 4.7 percent. Most economists would qualify Florida's 4 percent as full employment, meaning everyone who's really qualified to work already has a job. That's tough on hiring managers here, who sometimes have to scrape the bottom of the job-candidate barrel.

"Good people are still extremely hard to find," said David Hagan, a technical recruiter for Spherion in Tampa, comparing 2007 to 2006. "Especially in the tech field."

Just ask Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who's shuttering his St. Petersburg headquarters for San Francisco (California jobless rate: 5.6 percent).

What's to blame: stagnant wages

Low pay is an irrepressible theme among workers here. In the Tampa Bay Partnership's latest regional economic scorecard - which compares Tampa with Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Jacksonville; and Raleigh, N.C. - Tampa again ranked last in median household income ($38,720, compared with No. 1 Dallas' $48,396).

There's hope, though: In that same scorecard, Tampa placed first for average wage growth (9.93 percent, compared with No. 6 Atlanta's 1.9 percent).

What's to blame: slowing job creation

Until this spring, Florida was the country's No. 1 state for job creation for four years running. Now, we're third behind No. 1 Texas and California.

It's another effect of the too-hot-to-be-sustainable housing market: A year ago, the state's biggest jobs creator was the construction industry. Now, it's the biggest loser.

Still, No. 3 isn't shabby. "It's slower," said Sean Snaith, a University of Central Florida economist, talking about the state's job creation rate. "I wouldn't say it's slow."

At Bayshore Solutions, a Web-development company in Tampa, CEO Kevin Hourigan points out that the housing slump has been a help to his business. Over the year, he said, cheaper housing has made it easier to recruit new hires.

[Last modified October 26, 2007, 20:57:50]