The Tampa Bay region’s economy is struggling to return to health, with slight improvements in hiring and job creation, according to a regional scorecard released Tuesday that compares the region to five others in the South.

But the new data collected by the Tampa Bay Partnership shows the region -- which includes Manatee and Sarasota counties -- remains in fifth place in the regional ranking, with only Jacksonville scoring lower in the six key areas measured. They are employment and workforce, income and productivity, housing, innovation, education and transportation.

Tampa Bay improved in two categories -- employment and workforce (from sixth to fifth place) and housing (from fifth to fourth place.)

Other regions that outrank Tampa Bay include Raleigh/Durham (1), Dallas (2), Atlanta (3) and Charlotte (4).

Job creation and job growth were the two main areas giving Tampa Bay higher marks in employment and workforce. The eight-county region gained 2,767 jobs from the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011, compared to 5,733 jobs reported lost in the previous scorecard. This is the first time the region has shown job gains since summer 2007.

“We are most excited about job growth,” said Mike Vail, president and chief operating officer of Sweetbay Supermarket and chair of the business intelligence committee for the partnership.

“We celebrate all the jobs that we gain, every one of them.”

The Atlanta metro area was the only area of the six measured that lost jobs, with 8,300 fewer since the last scorecard.

The unemployment rate for the Tampa Bay region also decreased from 12.58 percent to 11.70 percent, but it still left the area in last place as other regions retained their previous rankings.

Other economic indicators are still stalling.

Data shows housing prices have fallen 53 percent since 2006, and personal income is still behind other regions. Tampa Bay’s per capita personal income -- the total of all income, which includes wages, proprietor income and transfer payments, such as Social Security -- of $38,475 is the fourth-highest. But its average wage is $39,467, the lowest of the six areas compared.

Based on the semi-annual scorecard data, the partnership has targeted four industry “clusters” to concentrate their efforts on. They include applied health and human performance, high-tech electronics and instruments, business data and financial services, and marine and environmental.

A leadership committee will tackle ways to encourage job growth and expansion in these clusters, said Stuart Rogel, chief executive officer of the Tampa Bay Partnership.

“We’ve been working over the last year, looking where the job growth of the future will come from and what we need to do to foster that job growth,” he said.

There has been an upswing in job growth in Manatee since the first of the year. Sharon Hillstrom, interim director of the Manatee County Economic Development Council, said 22 companies have been awarded incentive money for an expected creation of 918 jobs.

Although the Tampa Bay region increased its ranking from a tie for fifth to a tie for fourth in housing, there was a continued decline in building permits and the region’s apartment rental rates are the third highest measured.

The scorecard’s results are “consistent with Florida’s recovery so far,” said economist Sean Snaith with the University of Central Florida.

“Growth has been weak; we’ve seen some job creation, but it has slipped a little recently,” he said.

“We are still in a sluggish economy.”

In the long-term, strong economic recovery in Florida should focus on improving education, Snaith said.

“Are we preparing students for jobs that will be available?” he asked. “What will their marketability be? Training and retraining should be a constant over a lifetime.”

Housing and labor are like Siamese twins, Snaith said.

“They feed off of one another, it is a chicken and egg problem and it doesn’t matter which comes first.”