Tampa Bay Jobs On the Decline
As the area's unemployment rate continued to climb, more Tampa Bay jobs were lost recently.
During September, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area saw its unemployment rate increase from 11.4 percent to 11.7 percent, which is higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent. The area has not seen its unemployment rate decrease since April, when it went from 10.5 percent to 10.2 percent.
The area had a total non-farm employment of 1,161,700 workers during September, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,162,200 workers during August and a 4.5 percent decrease from last year.
Four industries managed to see a monthly increase in employment, including professional and business services by 1,400 jobs, education and health services by 2,600 jobs, other services by 300 jobs and government by 2,800 jobs. The mining and logging industry employed 600 workers, the same as during August and the same as during September 2008.
Two industries were able to add jobs on a yearly basis. The education and health services industry employed 172,500 workers during September, up from 169,900 workers during August and a 1.4 percent increase from last year. The other services industry employed 49,300 workers during September, up from 49,000 workers during August and a 2.3 percent increase from last year.
The construction industry took the biggest hit when compared to last year. That industry employed 62,300 workers during September, down from 63,200 workers during August and a 15.4 percent decrease from last year.
Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in employment include:
- manufacturing by 10 percent
- trade, transportation and utilities by 6.7 percent
- information by 8 percent
- financial activities by 3.9 percent
- professional and business services by 6.3 percent
- leisure and hospitality by 1.7 percent
- government by 1.8 percent