MSA data

Florida's population — already among the oldest in the country — is getting even older, but the rest of the nation is not too far behind.

New census data shows Florida's median population was 40.7 in 2010, two years older than in 2000. The increase reflects both the state's continuing allure for retirees, and the aging of the nation's largest generation: the baby boomers.

Unemployment is down in Pinellas County, according to the latest numbers from the Agency for Workforce Innovation, The county’s not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in October was 11.5 percent, down from 12 percent in September. AWI’s October report showed that 51,386 people were unemployed compared to 53,957 the month before. The state’s not-seasonally-adjusted rate for October was 11.6 percent. The national rate was 9.0 percent.

Gainesville's ranks of the unemployed swelled nearly a percentage point in June to 8.4 percent, the biggest increase in a year, according to Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation. In May the rate was 7.6 percent.

The steep increase was counter to Florida's overall report, which saw the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment figure dip to 11.4 percent last month, down from 11.7 percent in May.

Pinellas County's unemployment rate for April is down nearly a full percentage point, according to the latest figures from the Florida Agency of Workforce Innovation.

April's rate was 11.5 percent, compared to March when 12.4 percent of the county's labor force was looking for a job.

In April, 51,629 of the county's labor force of 447,989 were looking for a job. In March, 55,693 out of a labor force of 450,195 were unemployed.

If not for babies and immigrants, Metro Orlando would be shrinking. The latest U.S. Census estimates show that the growth of Orlando's families, together with its continued appeal to people from other countries, narrowly offset the loss of residents who left the state because of the recession.

The four-county metropolitan area grew an anemic 1 percent in 2009, adding 21,198 people. Two-thirds of the increase was the result of having nearly twice as many births than deaths.

No matter how you slice it, the Tampa Bay area is having a tougher time slogging through the Great Recession than most of the country.

Exhibit A comes courtesy of a Brookings Institution analysis being released today that compares economic indicators for the top 100 U.S. metro areas.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region ranks toward the bottom in several key measures: 89th in drop in employment from its pre-recession peak; 89th in drop in economic output from its peak; 89th in drop in housing prices over one year; 93rd in rise in unemployment over the past year.

The most vivid sign of Florida's fight against recession came in August with the news that the state's ever-rising population declined in the 12 months ending April 1. Preliminary estimates show a drop of 58,000 in a state where growth has fueled the economic engine for more than 60 years.

The Tallahassee metropolitan statistical area, however, gained population during the same period. Wakulla County's increase of 3.5 percent to 31,791 was the most dramatic.

Florida’s first population contraction since World War II is now affecting how advertisers see the Tampa-St. Petersburg market for the upcoming television season.

Nielsen Media Research said four of Florida’s major television markets – Tampa, Miami, Fort Myers and Tallahassee – are down in the overall ranking of designated market areas because of declines in domestic migration.

We first heard the term decades ago: The "Sun Belt" was just starting a run of phenomenal growth - and no wonder. It conjured a sunny state of mind as well as a balmy place on the map.

Everybody, it seemed, wanted a spot in the sun.

For a generation or more, the Sun Belt thrived like no other region in America - a growth so steady it felt as though the boom would never end. But now it has, replaced by a bust that has left some swaths of the region suffering as severely as anywhere in the current recession.

What brought the dark clouds to the Sun Belt, and are they here to stay?