Coca Cola Enterprises, JP Morgan Chase, MetLife and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Those are just some of the companies that have established major operations in the Tampa Bay Area in recent years, hiring hundreds of workers. That, in turn, has helped the region's overall economy continue to grow.

Such new job growth is one of the reasons that Tampa - and nine other Florida cities - did well in a recent ranking based on 'overall economic vitality.' Compiled by Moody's Economy.com, the company's Business Vitality Index ranked Tampa No. 15 out of 379 cities nationwide.

The index, which used data from 2005, is based on a number of factors, ranging from household income growth to local unemployment rates.

Tourism and agriculture remain Florida's largest industries, but what's lifting Florida's economy is new business and job growth in accounting, engineering, information technology and other high-tech fields, said Per Berglund, senior economist for Moody's Economy.com.

'In many parts of Florida, these industries have been growing at a high rate,' Berglund said. 'Florida has much more to offer than just tourism.'

The growth in jobs and businesses in the professional services sector has offset to some extent the big downturn in Florida's real estate market, Berglund said.

'I'm fairly optimistic about the state of Florida and its economy, even though you're having these problems in the real estate sector,' he said. Business 'diversity has really improved in recent years, thanks to this growth in the business and professional services industry.'

Coca Cola Enterprises, for example, located a major financial center in Brandon in 2001, adding more than 700 jobs. The company chose the Tampa area because of recruiting opportunities, said company spokeswoman Michele McKillip.

'The University of South Florida has an outstanding accountancy program,' she said. 'There's a high quality local labor force there.'

Coca Cola's Shared Services Center handles accounting, reporting, payroll and benefits administration for the company's North American business unit. Coca Cola announced in April that it plans to add 200 more financial service jobs in Brandon by the end of this year. The average annual salary for those jobs is $41,500, McKillip said.

The diversification of employment in Tampa and the rest of the state isn't accidental, said Hillsborough County Economic Development Director Gene Gray.

For years, state and local officials worked to lure more financial service companies to the Tampa Bay area to lessen the economy's reliance on tourism, which took a hit after the Sept. 11 attacks.

'The tourism industry was devastated,' Gray said. 'The ripple effects from that went through the entire state economy.'

The recession that followed the terrorist attacks illustrated a need to target and recruit professional service industries, especially financial service companies, Gray said.

According to figures from the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce's Committee of One Hundred, a business advocacy group, Hillsborough County gained more than 11,000 jobs in professional service industries such as software development and financial services since 2002.

Fort Walton Beach, which received the No. 2 rating from Economy.com for overall economic vitality behind Austin, Texas, landed high on the rating because it was a small city to begin with, and so its job and business growth outstripped other cities, which have mature economies.

'A few of these small metro areas have had disproportionate growth,' Berglund said. 'They're moving from being a small place to becoming a major place.'

Other factors fueling the Florida economy is the state's low unemployment rate and its fast-growing population, he said.

'When you look at the rate of population growth in Florida, it's twice as fast as that of the nation,' he said. 'People, not just retirees, are moving there to benefit from the economy and the work there.'

The unemployment rate in the Tampa Bay area in April was 3.3 percent. 'It's been easy to find work in Florida,' Berglund said. 'That has clearly been a major attraction.'

Florida's population of 18 million is expected to grow 30 percent in the next 25 years. The state's soaring population eventually will help Florida's ailing real estate sector get back on its feet, he said.

'The steady flow of people into the state is going to help fill those vacant units and restore balance,' Berglund said.

Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870 or rray@tampatrib.com.