Thrive
City council expresses concern over St. Pete job losses
St. Petersburg’s annual job growth decreased by 3% in 2024 after increasing by roughly 6% in 2021 and 2022. City council members now want answers.
The collective concern shared during their June 5 meeting stems from data points briefly mentioned at the city’s State of the Economy event in May. Councilmember Gina Driscoll subsequently requested an administrative report regarding the job losses and potential remedies.
While Driscoll initially hoped to have the discussion June 12, her colleagues and City Administrator Rob Gerdes suggested waiting for a more thorough committee presentation. She acquiesced but expects “some really great ideas and the announcement of some really good plans to turn this around” in late July.
“I absolutely do not want us to become a bedroom community for Tampa and other cities that are creating jobs,” Driscoll said. “We’re not Wesley Chapel – we’re St. Pete.
“We’re the fifth-largest city in the State of Florida, and our local economy needs to reflect that.”
St. Petersburg’s labor force has shrunk, particularly compared to pandemic-era growth. Image: City documents.
The May 20 State of the Economy event highlighted a city at a crossroads. Taxable values continue soaring to nearly $140 billion, led by growth downtown and revitalization efforts in the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area.
While Raymond James Financial ($130.37 million) topped the taxpayer rankings in 2024, downtown residential developments occupied second through eighth place. Economic and workforce development director Brian Caper said those projects “generate significantly higher tax revenue per acre and greatly contribute to the city’s ability to fund new projects and programs throughout St. Petersburg.”
The city also set another record in 2024 with nearly $1.4 billion in new construction value and 35,000 permits issued. However, St. Petersburg’s 3% drop in job growth more than doubled the regional average.
Employment creation in Florida declined by just .04%. “I think we have some work to do,” Driscoll said Thursday. “I think we can do it together.”
St. Petersburg’s labor force posted modest gains in 2019 and 2020 and spiked by roughly 4% in 2022 and 2023. It contracted by 2.47% in 2024 as the cost of living continued to increase.
“I’d like to know what the administration has already been doing about it,” Driscoll said. “That was a part that they did not go into detail about during the presentation.”
Driscoll noted administrators glossed over those harrowing statistics during the event, potentially due to time constraints. She is also encouraged by the city’s efforts to create “good jobs infrastructure,” like affordable housing and transit-oriented development zoning changes.
“Affordable housing is good, but it only goes so far if the person living there has to spend that savings on commuting somewhere else to their job,” Driscoll added.
Councilmember Deborah Figgs-Sanders would also like additional information regarding job creation and losses, albeit during an Economic and Workforce Development Committee meeting. Councilmember Brandi Gabbard agreed and called the statistics “shocking and upsetting.”
She advocated for including the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation and the Pinellas County Economic Development Corporation in a thorough committee discussion. The county’s labor force declined by 4.98% in 2024, nearly double the city’s rate.
“I feel like it’s such a much bigger lift than we can do alone as the city,” Gabbard said. “And that’s why I feel like having these other players at the table could really get us to a place where maybe we can start to see where the holes are …”
New job creation has also dropped precipitously in St. Petersburg. Image: City documents.
Driscoll offered potential solutions to a “downward spiral” that began in 2022. She mentioned the failed Moffitt Cancer Center proposal and the need for additional office space.
Driscoll has also been “banging the drum” about expanding the Maritime and Defense Technology Hub, which has a waiting list of companies interested in operating from the unique co-working facility. The city owns that property and the adjacent parcel, a typically empty parking lot for the vastly underutilized Port St. Petersburg.
“I did find it ironic that one of the speakers at the State of the Economy was Saildrone, one of the companies that is housed at the Hub,” Driscoll said. “And it happens to be one of the companies that we are going to lose because we do not have enough space for them now. If they’re going to grow, they’re going to go – and I don’t want that to happen.”
She amended her motion to discuss job losses and solutions at a July 24 Economic and Workforce Development Committee meeting. It passed unanimously, with Council Chair Copley Gerdes absent.
Leilani Keith
June 11, 2025at8:55 pm
American workers have always been pawns/tools of the rich. s
The ppl responsible for this mess are mercenaries. We can cry all we want, but we can’t appeal to sensibilities they don’t have. If we don’t stand up in massive numbers, we’re on the path to losing everything.
Richard Bruce
June 11, 2025at5:31 pm
I didn’t vote for the past three Mayor’s. They all want to increase w a supportive population for political subsistence. They don’t want the type of people that work in jobs that create real products.
Julia Burke
June 11, 2025at2:05 pm
There’s so much job creation opportunity that has, indeed, been squandered. I just think of dumb things like the obsession with Trop. and with new builds…if we could actually be effective about fixing infrastructure, roads, drainage, etc., St. Pete would be a much more attractive city for businesses of a certain size. But the City has messed up their priorities big-time. Focusing on all the wrong things, IMHO.
Alyssa Haley
June 11, 2025at1:57 pm
Feels like they’re always one step behind. No real plan, just reacting when things go wrong. People need stability, not more fixing things last minute.
Chantel Evans
June 10, 2025at6:18 pm
Anyone with eyes could’ve seen this coming! All these apartments and no businesses what did ya expect?! 🙄
Ryan Todd
June 10, 2025at4:49 pm
St Pete’s problem is that the economy is overwhelmingly a service-based economy. We need prime employers in St. Pete to create wealth instead of just recirculating money. St Pete has lacked the requisite Class A Office Space to support prime employers for too long.
Dave Feddon
June 10, 2025at4:35 pm
We relocated elsewhere in Pinellas County, because of all of the rezoning changing historically commercial and industrial land to residential.
Alan DeLisle
June 10, 2025at12:42 pm
What hypocrisy. Look no further than the mirror for the reason for job loss. Bad decisions by the Mayor and Council: Rays/Trop, Moffitt, Marina, New City Hall/office building, Dynasty. Excellent jobcreation squandered by politics and poor economic development decision-making. I was not shocked at the 3% decline because the commercial private sector is now leery of St Pete. Get out of the bubble! Shame on the Mayor for ignoring that number.