Typically known as "Florida's Space Coast," this area is home to the Kennedy Space Center. Thousands of tourists flock here to see space shuttle launches, but the area also has a sizeable manufacturing industry that contributed more than 3 percentage points to its 4.7% GDP growth in 2010.
While that might seem impressive, the area's overall economic recovery has been anything but. Earlier this month, Brookings Institution listed Palm Bay as among the nation's major metropolitan areas with the weakest economic recoveries. The area might have gained from manufacturing, but it has continued to suffer from severe declines in home prices.
Aside from Kansas City, it was the only major metropolitan area during the past four quarters to lose jobs, according to the Washington, DC-based think tank. It's also among those that have yet to recover any jobs lost since its employment peak.
Unemployment is above 11%, higher than the national rate of 9.1%. And it appears the job market might not improve any time soon. Aside from expectations that manufacturing could slow down nationally, the area has already experienced significant job losses related to retirement of the Kennedy Space Center and the 30-year shuttle program.
And the uptick in manufacturing could certainly slow too, since the industry partly relies on the space program for business, says Sean Snaith, economist and director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Economic Competitiveness.
"You're going to see significant job losses," Snaith says.
Emerging markets have been caught in the global contagion sparked by the European debt crisis. But these economies still have something most others don't: Growth in local demand for goods and services.
