Tallahassee in the Top Ten of US Start-Up Cities AND in the Bottom for Job Creation

Ben Casselman, chief economics writer for the FiveThirtyEight website, writes that 

the national startup rate for businesses fell in 2014 for the second straight year, to eight percent. The rate at which Americans start businesses has been falling for more than three decades, and while the decline has slowed in recent years, it has shown no sign of reversing. . .new businesses play a vital role in creating jobs, improving productivity and spurring economic growth.

Countless cities had tried strategies — “incubators,” “accelerators,” venture funds, tax breaks — in an effort to capture some of Silicon Valley’s elusive magic. Few had succeeded. 

However,  Tallahassee ranked ninth in a top ten review of Metro areas with the fastest-growing rate of new startups (less than one-year-old) in 2014.  A new annual study of entrepreneurs, a joint effort of the Census Bureau and the Kauffman Foundation, was released in late 2016. It showed that nearly one in ten businesses with employees were new in 2014.  

On the other hand, Tallahassee ranked 142nd in a listing of 150 cities (with Detroit being #150) for new job creation, as ranked by WalletHub.  They looked at 23 specific criteria — among them job opportunities, employment growth, median income, unemployment rate, full-time and part-time, job security, workers in poverty, and so forth.

With a score of 142, Tallahassee scored in the bottom 10 and was the lowest of any Florida city in the Wallethub study.  So, while start-ups may be booming, they are not having an impact on job creation in our community.  

The results ranked Scottsdale, Arizona; Plano, Texas; and Orlando at the top of the list, while Fresno, California; Bakersfield, California; and Detroit scored at the bottom.  [Here's the link to the methodology.]

In a different study, the Milken Institute’s annual ranking of best-performing cities, [released December 2016], Tallahassee received the lowest ranking among all Florida cities. The Institute ranked 200 cities and Tallahassee ranked 172*.  

(Gainesville ranked 100. Orlando ranked 9. Tampa/St Petersburg 33.) The Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities index provides an objective benchmark for examining the underlying factors and identifying unique characteristics of economic growth in metropolitan areas. The index uses a fact-based set of metrics such as job creation, wage gains, and technology developments to evaluate the relative growth of metropolitan areas. 

 

*Tallahassee Rankings within the 200 US cities dropped in 2016 from the previous year.

 2016 Ranking 172

 2015 Ranking 158

Other Tallahassee Rankings (out of 200 cities): 

186 Job Growth from 2010 - 2015

170 Job Growth from 2014 - 2015

190 Wage Growth from 2009 - 2014

  95 Wage Growth from 2013 - 2014

130 Short Term Job Growth from - 2015 - 2016

101  High Tech Jobs GDP Growth from 2010 - 2015

123 High Tech Jobs GSP Growth from 2014 - 2015

143 Number of High-Tech Industries - 2015

According to the Tallahassee Democrat,  A recent Florida Chamber of Commerce voter survey showed that Tallahassee was the only metropolitan area where jobs and economy were not top priorities among voters.

However, this January's Florida Trend magazine featured a sponsored section on Tallahassee/Leon County called "Reimagining Its Future" touting its new take on economic development. Read the report here [opens as a PDF].

Economic data available through the Tallahassee Economy Project shows that the Tallahassee/Leon County area has had nearly flat job growth at under 1 percent, gross domestic product growth at less than 1 percent and relatively flat income growth.

It remains to be determined how this new Office of Economic Vitality will address job creation, the high poverty rate and significant unemployment numbers, especially in the minority community.