Jeff Zeleny/The New York Times

TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney sat at the head of the table at a coffee shop here on Thursday, listening to a group of unemployed Floridians explain the challenges of looking for work. When they finished, he weighed in with a predicament of his own.

“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m also unemployed.”

He chuckled. The eight people gathered around him, who had just finished talking about strategies of finding employment in a slow-to-recover economy, joined him in laughter.

“Are you on LinkedIn?” one of the men asked.

“I’m networking,” Mr. Romney replied. “I have my sight on a particular job.”

The morning coffee hour at Buddy Brew Coffee here on West Kennedy Boulevard was interrupted by a conversation about small businesses and job creation as Mr. Romney finished a three-day swing through Florida. While his visit was largely focused on fund-raising, he spent more than an hour promoting his pitch that he would be a stronger steward of the economy than President Obama.

But any of the bravado that accompanied him in the wake of his first presidential debate on Monday in New Hampshire — he vowed to return to the state in four years, accompanied by a Secret Service detail — was absent. He took a humble, self-deprecating approach.

“I wish I had a job for everybody,” Mr. Romney said at the end of his discussion. He added, “I may be unemployed for longer than I’d like.”

The references to Mr. Romney’s own unemployment status added yet another humorous, but occasionally awkward, moment to his ever-growing catalog of off-the-cuff remarks that he makes as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination. He spent the morning doing more listening than talking — a woman in the crowd openly urged him to talk about the deficit — and it was unclear whether he persuaded any voters to join his effort.

Tom Yarranton, 55, lost his job in March 2010. He had spent 31 years as an internal auditor at a manufacturing company. He said he liked Mr. Romney’s mind-set as a businessman, but added that he did not blame Mr. Obama for still being unemployed.

“I’m not mad at him,” Mr. Yarranton said in an interview after the session ended. “It’s amazing in politics. They’re all into pointing fingers at each other. The Republicans right now are so mad at the Democrats, but nobody is doing anything.”

The sentiment illustrated the long-term challenge for Mr. Romney and other Republican candidates as they try to win over independent voters — and, perhaps, even some conservative Democrats — to accomplish their ultimately goal on Election Day in November 2012.

In the conversation with voters, Mr. Romney modulated his criticism of the president, saying, “I won’t be too partisan here.” A few moments later, as he stood before television cameras, he ratcheted up his disapproval.

“We have all been distressed by the policies that this administration has put in place over the last two years,” Mr. Romney said. “We have seen the most anti-investment, antigrowth, antijob strategy in America since Jimmy Carter. The result has been it’s harder and harder for people to find work.”

Joan Savage, who described herself as a die-hard Republican, said she was uncertain whether her party could win back the White House. She said that she walked away with a favorable impression of Mr. Romney, but added, “I don’t know that anyone can beat Obama right now.”

The path to that fight will begin here in Tampa, where Republicans will hold their national convention next summer and formally crown their nominee to challenge Mr. Obama.