The Big Bend Region Economy Around Tallahassee

Two official definitions frame the Big Bend region around Tallahassee: the nine-county Apalachee Region served by the Apalachee Regional Planning Council, and the four-county Tallahassee metro area used by federal labor statistics.

The Apalachee Regional Planning Council was created in 1977 as an association of local government representatives, and its members are Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla counties and their 28 municipalities (FDOT District 3). From its office at 2507 Callaway Road in Tallahassee, the council runs economic development, emergency planning, housing and transportation programs for the Apalachee Region (Apalachee Regional Planning Council).

For jobs and wages, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics uses a smaller Tallahassee, FL metro made up of Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon and Wakulla counties (BLS). Most figures on this page use that metro.

Leon County belongs to both definitions. The Office of Economic Vitality reports that about one-third of workers employed in the Tallahassee-Leon County region commute from surrounding counties, which it calls a sign of the area's role as a major regional employment hub (Office of Economic Vitality).

The Tallahassee-Leon County metro produced $21.3 billion in real GDP in 2024, a 4.3 percent gain over 2023, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data reported by the Office of Economic Vitality.

Real GDP had been $20.4 billion in 2023. That 2024 growth rate beat Florida, where real GDP rose 3.3 percent, and the nation, at 2.8 percent, and the Office of Economic Vitality notes it was the first time since 2007 that the Tallahassee-Leon County region outgrew both in the same year (Leon County).

Measured over a longer stretch, Tallahassee-Leon County real GDP grew 9.3 percent from 2022 to 2024 and stood 15.9 percent above its 2021 level, according to the same February 12, 2026 release from the Office of Economic Vitality (Leon County).

Government remains the largest sector in the Tallahassee metro, with 60.5 thousand of 200.5 thousand nonfarm jobs in August 2026 (preliminary), but private services are where the region is adding jobs.

Over the 12 months to August 2026, the Tallahassee metro added jobs fastest in leisure and hospitality, up 5.7 percent, and professional and business services, up 5.4 percent, while government slipped 0.7 percent; all are preliminary BLS figures (BLS).

Manufacturing is a small slice of the Tallahassee economy at 4.4 thousand jobs, and mining, logging and construction together count 10.4 thousand, both August 2026 preliminary figures (BLS).

Workers in the Tallahassee metro earned a mean of $28.64 an hour in May 2025, below the national mean of $33.54, according to BLS occupational data released July 7, 2026.

The higher-paying occupational groups in the Tallahassee metro were management at $54.94 an hour, legal at $51.59 and healthcare practitioners and technical at $45.88 (BLS).

Business and financial operations is a larger share of work in Tallahassee than nationally: 20,980 jobs, or 11.3 percent of Tallahassee employment in May 2025, against 6.8 percent nationally, at a mean wage of $33.06 an hour (BLS).

Pay is moving up. The Office of Economic Vitality dashboard puts the average weekly wage in the region at $1,301 in the fourth quarter of 2025, $76 more than a year earlier; the $129 quarter-to-quarter rise was the biggest since the fourth quarter of 2023 (Office of Economic Vitality).

The 2026 indicators for Tallahassee-Leon County are mixed: the labor force and new home permits are up, while unemployment has risen and taxable sales dipped slightly.

Unemployment in the region averaged 4.9 percent in the second quarter of 2026, up from 3.7 percent a year earlier, even though the labor force grew by 643 people to 207,118 (Office of Economic Vitality).

Builders were busier: Leon County issued 189 new single-family construction permits in the second quarter of 2026, 120 of them in the City of Tallahassee and 69 in unincorporated Leon County, 31 more than a year earlier. The median single-family sales price was $330,000 in the first quarter of 2026, down $5,000 from a year earlier (Office of Economic Vitality).

Spending held near flat. Taxable sales in the Tallahassee region were $1.61 billion in the first quarter of 2026, with consumer nondurables at 30 percent and tourism and recreation at 23 percent, while tourist tax receipts rose to $2.41 million. Industrial vacancy reached 4.3 percent in the second quarter after passing 4.0 percent in early 2026 for the first time since late 2017 (Office of Economic Vitality).

The Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality steers incentives toward four target sectors: applied sciences and innovation, manufacturing and transportation or logistics, professional services and information technology, and health care.

Those four sectors make up the Targeted Business Program, which offers incentives to businesses that expand in or relocate to Tallahassee-Leon County, and OEV says the four sectors contribute to private sector job growth, wealth creation and a diversification of the economy (Office of Economic Vitality).

Small firms got their own push in October 2026. Big Bend Enterprise Development Week, announced by the Office of Economic Vitality on October 13, 2026, gathers entrepreneurs, small business owners and resource partners, with featured programming that includes the BBED Week Business Exchange on Thursday, October 15 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Augustus B Turnbull Conference Center, a small business procurement resource fair, and a Coffee and Commerce session hosted by the Capital City Chamber (Office of Economic Vitality).

The section guides on major employers, the state capital payroll and the Office of Economic Vitality cover those employers and programs in more detail.