In a release of revised employment figures Friday, Florida officials knocked the legs out from under the Tampa Bay area's long-standing reputation as a hotbed of job creation.

Not only did the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area win the dubious distinction of being the biggest job loser in the state in January, with 11,700 fewer jobs than a year earlier, it also turns out that job growth stalled locally last spring and started eroding quickly in July, with the hemorrhaging continuing through the second half of the year.

Reviewing the areas of strength in Florida's economy, David Denslow, University of Florida economist, said he was pleasantly surprised to see both retail and tourism employment remain steady in January. While health care is likely to remain a reliable source of jobs, he warned that education and government, strong job generators in the past, will be constrained this year due to tighter state and local budgets.

Even construction, which accounted for 75 percent of the job losses in the state, is likely to continue to post declines, Denslow said.

"As projects now under way are completed, the job numbers will fall more," he said. "They're going to get worse before they get better."

State changes tale: Jobs disappearing - St. Petersburg Times - March 8, 2008