10 years don't change area's prosperity rank

The Tampa-St. Petersburg metropolitan area prospered during the economic boom of the 1990s, but it couldn't keep up with the likes of Minneapolis, San Jose, Calif., or even Austin, Texas.

The Tampa Bay area was 42nd of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in "prosperity rankings" that measured income, unemployment, education levels and other economic factors gleaned from Census 2000.

That's the same spot the area held in 1990, according to the analysis, which was conducted by the State University of New York at Albany. The state's three other large metro areas -- Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami -- all dropped in the rankings.

"The things that would drag Florida down would be the high poverty levels in Florida and the skewing of the Florida economy toward the lower-wage jobs," said Bruce Nissen, program director for Florida International University's Center for Labor Research and Studies.

Economists said the state's lower rankings are more a reflection of a stepped-down economy -- one in which wages and expenses are lower -- than a measure of overall economic attractiveness. Furthermore, there weren't the substantial shifts in Florida metro numbers that would point to major problems.

"It doesn't suggest any dramatic losing of ground," said Stan Geberer, an economist with Fishkind and Associates, an Orlando consulting firm.

Nationally, the analysis found that the nation's two "global cities," New York and Los Angeles, lagged behind the country, as did the metro areas surrounding them. The biggest improvements were in the Midwest, in which a number of metro areas shed their Rust Belt image, and in the South, which saw Austin ride a high-tech wave to a ranking of 15th.

But the rankings don't say it all.

Cost of living and income differences are complicated further by differences in job market composition and compensation. Just because you move to San Jose, the No. 1 ranked metro area, does not mean you will have the job skills in its technology-driven economy to earn the median household income of $74,335. And if you did, you very well could do better in Florida.

According to Salary.com, a Web-based cost-of-living calculator, employers in San Jose typically pay nearly 23 percent more than in Tampa for the same job, but the cost of living is 51 percent higher -- a net loss.

All things considered, Florida has not fallen behind economically during the last decade, said David Lenze, an economist at the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

"When I look back over the 1990s in Florida, I don't see any area doing particularly poorly," Lenze said.

Of the four Florida metro areas, Fort Lauderdale and Miami showed relatively modest gains in per capita and median income. A couple of factors may be at work.

"In the Miami area, it's definitely immigration," said June Nogle, a University of Florida demographer. "When you get a lot of new people in, they don't have the job skills and experience. They've taken a step back."

In Miami-Dade County, census figures show that the foreign-born population increased by more than 31 percent in the past decade.

Lenze attributed the modest gains in income in Fort Lauderdale to the effects of Hurricane Andrew, the 1992 hurricane that displaced 250,000 people. The storm caused substantial damage to a relatively lower-income part of Miami-Dade County.

"A lot of people who lost their housing in Hurricane Andrew moved from Miami to Fort Lauderdale," Lenze said. "That may be showing up in those numbers."

The Tampa Bay area showed substantial gains in per capita and median income: nearly 17 and 11 percent respectively.

Nogle, of the University of Florida, said the area's growing economic base, particularly in the technology fields, may be the reason.

"There's been a lot of talk about the business development that has been going on in Tampa-St. Petersburg," she said.

Despite the large percentage gains, the Tampa numbers paled in comparison.

The national median household income was $41,994, while Florida's was $38,819 and the Tampa metro's was $37,406.

In the Orlando area, the economy is supported by a wide foundation of generally low-paying service sector jobs in tourism, which certainly softened its income increases and likely its place in the rankings.

Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood said those kind of jobs dilute the growth in high-tech companies, which she said has been substantial.

"At the same time high tech grows, the other sectors grow and that's what it's attributable to, plain and simple," she said.

Jim Dewey, a research economist at University of Florida, said that commuting times, tax rates and weather all play into gauging the economic attractiveness of an area. Looking at the state that way, he said: "I'm not convinced that Florida isn't undervalued."

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