TUESDAY'S CUP: Does Collier need economic development?

Until this summer, Collier County has been without an economic development organization for more than a year, and it only just announced the hiring of a new economic development chief.

But judging by the job numbers, the lack of an economic development organization doesn't seem to have hurt Collier County, at least as far as job creation is concerned.

The Naples area saw more job formation in the year ending in October than any other metro area on the Gulf Coast on an annual percentage-change basis, up 2.1%.

By contrast, neighbor Lee County, which has an active economic development organization to recruit businesses with cash incentives, saw employment decline 1.4% over the same period.

Collier recently hired Bruce Register to lead its new economic development efforts. Register is currently Hillsborough County's corporate business development manager. He'll start his new job in Collier in late January with an annual salary of $103,500.

While the Tampa area's employment growth over the past year was 1.7%, it leads the region in sheer number of jobs created over that period — 19,300 through October, or about one-third of the total of jobs created statewide.