Innovation lives elsewhere, according to new report

Type the phrase “innovation lives here” into a search engine and you’ll find a diverse assortment of companies and organizations, including the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corp., using it as a tagline. But does innovation have a big, opulent home in the Tampa Bay region?

New data from consumer and business research firm Smartest Dollar indicates that the Tampa Bay region might not be as innovative as we like to think. Examining criteria such as annual wages and the percentage of workers in innovative jobs, the company found that the Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater metro ranked below the national average in terms of how innovative its workforce is.