Hillsborough County

Despite a housing crash and depression-level downturn in Florida construction, asphalt-shingle manufacturer GAF Materials never laid off any workers from its Tampa plant. Until now. This week, GAF let go 50 employees, just over half its Tampa operation, blaming slack demand.

"We can definitely say that the market for roofing products has softened over the last several months," said Ted Marcopolus, company vice president of marketing services.

Rising poverty cast its shadow across the Tampa Bay region in 2009, fueled by the ongoing economic downturn.

The latest government estimates, released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, show the number of people living in poverty has been growing steadily since 2006 in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Polk counties.

Children have been hit the hardest in the Bay area, where about one in five people younger than 18 live in poverty, according to census estimates.

TAMPA - The minority population in the Tampa Bay area grew tremendously in the past decade, with Hispanics leading the way, according to recently released census estimates.

The numbers, pegged to July 1, 2009, show the counties of West Central Florida became more diverse as they grew over the course of the last decade. In many cases, minority groups grew several times faster than the general population.

RIVERVIEW — A rumor of impending violence ran rampant the other day at an east Hillsborough high school.

It flitted through classrooms and nearby campuses before finding the ears of administrators. It prompted calls home to parents and the posting of more than a dozen security guards and deputies inside the school gates.

The response was quick — just like the rumor's spread.

Call it the Facebook Effect.

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.

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.

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.

The following represent city-, county-, and regional-level news stories around the state relating to the BEBR Population Program's recent release of the April 1, 2009 preliminary population estimates.

Brevard's population dipped last year - Florida Today - August 24, 2009
UF: Polk Is Losing People - The Ledger - August 22, 2009

Lourdes Manso-Harris has job-hunting on her holiday shopping list. Crossed off the list for now: a laptop computer, a new TV, a vacation.

Manso-Harris was recently laid off by a national financial services company. Her husband is still working, and she has specialized skills that have already attracted interest from other employers. But finding the right job could take time, so delaying major purchases seemed like a good idea for the Miramar family.

''We put off a lot of things,'' Manso-Harris said.