A small collection of metropolitan markets produce, consume and distribute the vast majority of all U.S. goods, a concentration that puts enormous pressure on specific infrastructure, and demonstrates how problems in one market can spread across the entire country.

Florida took a beating during the Great Recession. Like many of its Sun Belt peers, the prominent roles of real estate, tourism and financial services led to more than 650,000 jobs lost between 2007 and 2010. Many of the state’s largest metro areas remain thousands of jobs below their peak levels.