Nearly all of Tampa Bay’s estimated payroll growth over the past year occurred in the Tampa metropolitan division, which accounted for 15,100 of the region’s 16,200 additional jobs, according to federal employment figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater metropolitan area had approximately 1.56 million payroll jobs in September, an increase of 1.1% from September 2025, with employment in the Tampa division rising 1.4% to 1,079,200 jobs.
The St. Petersburg–Clearwater–Largo division added an estimated 1,100 positions over the same period, growing 0.2% to 478,500.
The Tampa division covers Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties, while the St. Petersburg–Clearwater–Largo division covers Pinellas County, with federal employment figures assigning jobs according to where businesses operate. A Pinellas resident commuting to Tampa, for example, is counted at the Tampa workplace rather than where that employee lives.
Across the metropolitan area, unemployment reached 4.3% in September, up from 4.2% a year earlier, with the number of unemployed residents increasing from 72,235 to 74,160.
The civilian labor force grew by 5,224 to 1,706,261 over the same period, according to the government’s separate unemployment estimates, which measure workers by where they live.
Within the two metropolitan divisions, Tampa recorded a 4.5% unemployment rate in September, up from 4.3% a year earlier, while St. Petersburg–Clearwater–Largo reached 4.1%, compared with 4% in September 2025. The Tampa division had 53,962 unemployed residents, while the Pinellas division recorded 20,198.
Across Florida, employers had an estimated 9,997,700 payroll jobs in September, an increase of 71,700, or 0.7%, from a year earlier, placing Tampa Bay’s reported 1.1% growth above the statewide rate.
Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford added an estimated 14,300 jobs over the same period, while Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach recorded approximately 13,000 additional positions.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics classified the annual payroll changes across Tampa Bay and both metropolitan divisions as statistically unchanged under its 90% confidence standard, meaning the reported increases did not meet the agency’s threshold for statistical significance.
September’s estimates are preliminary and subject to revision, and the federal report does not identify which industries or employers account for the estimated concentration of jobs in the Tampa division.