St. Petersburg Industries: Target Sectors, Gateway Employers, Manufacturing and Metro Jobs

Through its Grow Smarter Initiative, the City of St. Petersburg targets five sectors: Marine and Life Sciences, Specialized Manufacturing, Financial Services, Data Analytics, and Creative Arts and Design (City of St. Petersburg, Economic Development districts and target industries).

The city says it picked these five St. Petersburg sectors as the ones with the greatest potential to create new jobs and raise incomes, and that it focuses its economic development resources on businesses in them (Grow Smarter). Pinellas County keeps a separate list. Pinellas County Economic Development targets Advanced Manufacturing, Aviation and Aerospace, Business and Financial Services, Defense and Homeland Security, Information Technology, and Life Sciences and Medical Technologies (Pinellas County Economic Development).

The City of St. Petersburg says financial services is the largest employment sector in the city, and it places top regional employers Raymond James Financial, Home Shopping Network and Jabil in the Gateway area of north St. Petersburg (City of St. Petersburg, About the Districts).

The city describes St. Petersburg as having the most concentrated financial services sector in Florida and says Raymond James is headquartered there (About the Districts). By the city count, the Gateway area at the crossroads of Tampa Bay supports more than 2,700 businesses and 60,000 employees, with a workforce of over 712,000 people within a 30 minute drive. Gateway employers meet with city staff every quarter through the Gateway Business Council, which takes inquiries at [email protected].

For a metro wide view, the BLS counts 142,400 financial activities jobs in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area in August 2026, a preliminary, not seasonally adjusted figure, about 0.4 percent fewer than a year earlier (BLS, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Economy at a Glance). That metro count includes Tampa and Clearwater as well as St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg top employers guide, in the economy section, lists the largest employers by name.

St. Petersburg manufacturing concentrates in two niches, electronics and medical devices, according to the City of St. Petersburg, which names Jabil among the top Gateway employers (City of St. Petersburg, Specialized Manufacturing).

Jabil says it began in 1966 when James Golden and Bill Morean built circuit boards outside Detroit, and it now reports more than 140,000 employees, 120 plus sites in 30 plus countries and $36B in revenue in fiscal 2026 (Jabil, About Us). The St. Petersburg city page lists a Jabil project at 10001 16th Street N, where a 69,000 square foot building is being remodeled as a research and development lab for engineers working on wearable technology (Gateway projects).

At county level, Pinellas County Economic Development says Pinellas has the largest manufacturing employee base in the Tampa Bay region, at over 34,000, ranks fifth in Florida for manufacturing establishments, and has roots in aerospace, electronics and medical devices (Pinellas County Economic Development). Metro wide, the BLS counts 74,400 manufacturing jobs in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area in August 2026, a preliminary figure (BLS manufacturing series).

One flag for readers comparing sources: the undated St. Petersburg city page credits the city with a second statewide ranking for manufacturing employment, while the Pinellas County quick facts call the county the third largest manufacturing base of employment in Florida (Pinellas County quick facts). The two describe different areas, and the city page gives no date or source for its ranking, so neither number should be quoted without its source.

The St. Petersburg Innovation District, immediately south of Downtown, is a cluster of higher education, marine science, healthcare, business incubation and media institutions, with the marine and environmental science agencies grouped around Bayboro Harbor (City of St. Petersburg, Innovation District).

The city says the St. Petersburg Ocean Team, a consortium of marine science, oceanographic and environmental research agencies and institutions, anchors the Innovation District, and it lists Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, Bayfront Health, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, NOAA and USGS among the major Marine and Life Sciences institutions (About the Districts).

Two St. Petersburg marine science institutions describe their own work. The USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center says its research focuses on coastal and marine processes and on natural hazards, resource sustainability and environmental change, and it hosts seminars on the third Tuesday of each month (USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center). The USF College of Marine Science lists its address as 140 7th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, phone 727-553-1634, and its site lists the Clam Bayou Marine Education Center (USF College of Marine Science).

St. Petersburg names Valpak and HSN among prominent data analytics firms in the city and calls Creative Arts and Design a tourism driver that positions the city as the cultural capital of Florida (target industries).

The St. Petersburg creative economy has a physical address. The Warehouse Arts District, bounded by 1st Ave. N. and 10th Ave. S. between 16th St. and 31st St., was largely industrial, with warehouses and small manufacturing companies, and now gathers artists, entrepreneurs and manufacturers under the slogan Where Art is Made (Warehouse Arts District and Main Streets). The city also says St. Petersburg is the only Florida city with three Main Street areas: Deuces Live and Grand Central, both designated in 2001, and the EDGE District.

A caution on the data analytics claim: the undated city page says the market is projected to increase 40 percent annually, without a date or source for the projection (Data Analytics), so it reads as a sector pitch rather than a measured St. Petersburg figure.

In August 2026 the BLS counted 1,559,600 nonfarm jobs in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, a preliminary, not seasonally adjusted figure, with professional and business services the largest supersector (BLS, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Economy at a Glance).

The same BLS page puts the metro unemployment rate at 4.7 percent in August 2026, also preliminary (BLS Economy at a Glance). These are metro figures for the whole Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, so they describe the labor market St. Petersburg employers hire from rather than the city alone. BLS marks every August 2026 St. Petersburg area figure in this section as preliminary.

The City of St. Petersburg lists four major Gateway area projects: a Power Design headquarters expansion, a Jabil research lab, a FedEx distribution center and the proposed Echelon City Center in Carillon Park (City of St. Petersburg, Gateway projects).

Power Design, a national electrical contracting business, is expanding its 70,000 square foot headquarters with more than $3 million of investment, including a 34,326 square foot manufacturing and distribution center and a 19,600 square foot office, a St. Petersburg project the city expects to create 60 jobs. FedEx is building a 236,976 square foot distribution center at 1960 102nd Avenue N. Echelon City Center is proposed at 2.8 million square feet of office, apartments, retail and a boutique hotel, with a five to seven year buildout and $600 to $700 million in development costs (Gateway projects).

The Gateway project list on the St. Petersburg page carries no date, so the status of each project is best confirmed with the city economic development office before relying on it. For the current picture, the city economic development page links a 2026 State of the Economy presentation and points to the St. Pete Economic Development Corporation for data on demographics, living costs, taxes and workforce cost factors (City of St. Petersburg, Economic Development). Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the City of St. Petersburg website, the BLS website and the Pinellas County Economic Development website.

This industries section has no deeper guides of its own yet. The St. Petersburg top employers guide and the St. Petersburg downtown redevelopment guide, both in the economy section, go further on employers and on the Innovation District and downtown projects.