New report highlights fragile Florida economy

“Two-and-one-half years after the beginning of the Great Recession, the nation’s economic recovery remains jobless and seems more fragile than ever,” says the Brookings Institute June Metro Monitor report. The report tracks employment, unemployment, output, home prices and foreclosure rates in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas.

The June report, using data from the first quarter of 2010, places Bradenton, Cape Coral, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Miami and Orlando among the 20 weakest metro areas in the nation.

Florida’s metropolitan areas Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Tampa-St. Petersburg–Clearwater and Orlando–Kissimmee registered no growth in employment, a drop in home prices over the last year and stagnant economic growth.

The unemployment statistics are not surprising: Unemployment in Florida metro areas remains above the national average.

The Miami Herald reports:

The numbers aren’t exactly a revelation — South Florida has long been tagged as Exhibit A for the nation’s economic woes. And the bottom 20 in the Brookings study look familiar: almost all of them hail from Sunbelt areas that led the way in the housing boom, then crashed hard when the real estate bubble burst. Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada account for 16 of the 20 bottom finishers.

Still, the think tank’s report — the latest in a regular series — adds grim context to the pace of South Florida’s recovery, noting that the current recession is taking far longer to shake off than past ones.