Tampa Among Best for Jobs in 2016

TAMPA, FL — Jobseekers in the market for opportunity are likely to find the Tampa Bay area is one of the best places to be.

That’s according to Forbes magazine, which recently ranked the city fifth in the country for employment opportunities in the coming year. Tampa tied with McAllen-Edinburgh, Mission, Texas, in the No. 5 spot. Both metro areas have a net employment outlook of 24 percent. That means 24 percent of employers surveyed by ManpowerGroup said they intended to hire in the first quarter of the year.

See Also:

• Tampa Bay Tops State in Job Creation

Florida’s Cape Coral-Fort Myers area topped the list with a 35 percent outlook, but Forbes noted many of those jobs are likely to be seasonal to accommodate the tourism industry.

Tampa’s job growth was also called out recently by Gov. Rick Scott’s office. The Tampa Bay area led the state in job creation in 2015 with 40,500 jobs added between November 2014 and November 2015. The Bay area’s unemployment rate was pegged at 4.6 percent in November, lower than the state’s overall 5 percent rate.

The city with the lowest projected employment outlook in 2016 is Hartford, Conn., with a 1 percent rate reported. It’s followed closely by Chicago-Naperville-Joliet at 2 percent.

Check out Forbes’ full report online.

Photo courtesy of the City of Tampa’s Facebook page