Watkins, 27, earned a master's in business administration from the University of South Florida in 2002. He wanted to remain here to work. But a hard, cold reality stood in his way.

Although he had a good academic record, the best job offer he got locally would have paid him a starting salary of $45,000 a year.

CSX Corp. in Jacksonville offered him $51,000.

Watkins took the CSX job.

As many as one-third of the others who graduated at the top of his class made similar choices, Watkins says.

One problem Watkins ran into is that salaries here are significantly lower than the national average. Another is that the Tampa area doesn't abound in jobs for people with MBAs.

The result has been a brain drain among some of our top university graduates - the ones who might be the best equipped to help strengthen the regional economy. They're eager, ambitious and full of ideas - but are going elsewhere to work.

``To be perfectly honest with you, I advise my students to leave the state to maximize their earnings,'' says Steven Baumgarten, director of USF's MBA program.

Cities now compete for young, talented people the way they once competed for factories. Places such as Atlanta and Dallas, Baumgarten says, offer more opportunities and better salaries.

The situation is much the same among MBA graduates from the University of Florida.

Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, home to more large companies needing an MBA's skills, surpass Tampa as destinations for graduates, says Stephen La Barbera of UF's graduate business school.

Luring The Brightest

There's a strong link between a region's economic vitality and its ability to attract and keep educated young people, experts say.

In Seattle and Raleigh, N.C., the share of the population 25 and older with college degrees is about 45 percent, according to the Brookings Institution. In Denver; San Diego; Charlotte, N.C.; and Minneapolis, the figure is about 35 percent.

In Hillsborough County, the share is an estimated 26 percent, roughly the national average, according to 2002 numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The good news: This figure has grown from 19.5 percent in 1998. The bad: The numbers don't tell us how many in this expanding group are younger people coming here to pursue career opportunities or newly arrived retirees who got their degrees years ago.

Whatever the case, the problem remains. How do we fix it? It's a chicken-and-egg conundrum.

Without rewarding careers, the Tampa area won't be able to attract and retain skilled workers.

Without skilled workers, Tampa won't be able to attract the kind of employers that pay higher salaries and stand a chance of future prosperity.

The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce has launched an initiative to get small companies with 75 to 150 employees to move here, in the belief that at least some of these people will be well paid. The hope is that one or two of these firms will grow into economic anchors, creating more high-paying positions.

It's a long shot.

``Any economic development person will tell you we are off the wall,'' says Kim Scheeler, the chamber's president. Companies rarely move their headquarters. It's costly and disruptive.

Still, Scheeler says, ``We want to give it a try and see what happens. The way I look at it, there's a whole lot more upside than downside for us.''

The chamber also launched an organization called Emerge, intended to help young professionals network.

Then there's an initiative called Creative TampaBay, whose aim is to make the area more appealing to the same age group by drawing them to the region's culture.

Other Cities Share Goal

Tampa is following other cities in trying to attract the young by being a little cooler and a little more hip.

Cleveland and Memphis, Tenn., for example, have launched summer intern programs to attract graduates from universities such as Colgate and Yale. In addition, Memphis unabashedly calls itself the ``never sleeping funky fast soul of the global economy.''

Some question this emphasis on nomadic young people, those in their 20s and early 30s.

``Cities don't necessarily attract them - they rent them,'' says William Fry, a demographer with the Brookings Institution. Cities would be better off trying to attract skilled workers who are a little older - say, in their mid-30s.

``They may not be quite so cool, but they want to settle down and have kids,'' Fry says.

Tampa has one advantage in this regard. As with Watkins, many of the young people who get their degrees here want to stay.

``Most students try as hard as they can to find employment in Florida because they like being here,'' says Michael Kovac, former dean of USF's College of Engineering.

The college has about 2,800 undergraduates, about half of whom will complete their degrees here, and 700 graduate students. From this pool, about 46 percent stay here to work, USF says.

Baumgarten, the director of USF's MBA program, echoes Kovac.

``What I hear from our students continuously is, `I like it here,` '' Baumgarten says. He estimates that three of four USF MBA graduates wind up staying.

The trick is finding the job to allow that.

Watkins eventually succeeded. Last year, he landed a job at Raymond James Financial Inc., making the same salary he was earning at CSX.

``Tampa has some major drawbacks,'' Watkins says. ``But at the same time, it has some personality.''

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.