With jobsbox16 (county-by-county table)

Tag : Printed Table

Statewide employment totaled 7.92 million nonagricultural jobs inJuly, down 0.3 percent from June. Since July 2007, Florida has shed96,800 jobs, a 1.2 percent decline.

Sean Snaith, a University of Central Florida economist, blamed thesharply higher unemployment on Florida's slumping housing sector,noting that the construction industry alone lost more than 79,000jobs statewide in the past year.

"The housing bust is fully upon us, and the job lossesassociated with this housing bust continue to accrue and areshowing up in these unemployment figures," said Snaith,director of UCF's Institute for Economic Competitiveness. "Andthey are likely to go up from here."

Statewide, 572,000 people are unemployed out of a labor pool ofabout 9.3 million, according to the report.

Monesia T. Brown, director of the Agency for Workforce Innovation,said the agency's top priority "is strengthening Florida'seconomy by providing vital support to our state's businesses andjob seekers."

Orlando was one of only two metropolitan areas in the state toreport year-over-year job growth in July, with a net increase of2,100 jobs. The other, Gainesville, added 2,200 jobs from July 2007to July 2008.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area, in contrast, lost 16,100 jobsin those 12 months, while the giant Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West PalmBeach metro area shed 11,200 jobs.

In four-county Metro Orlando, losses in construction (7,200 jobs)and manufacturing (1,100) were offset by gains in leisure andhospitality (6,400 jobs) and health care (2,000).

"What we're seeing continues to be a segmented economy,"said David Sprinkle, Florida area vice president for AjilonProfessional Staffing in Orlando. "This isn't a broad-scale,across-the-board unemployment situation. There still are areasdoing well."

Southwest Florida is reporting the state's sharpest employmentdrops. The Fort Myers metro area has lost 4.2 percent of its jobsin the past year, while employment in the Naples metro area hasshrunk 3.1 percent.

Scott Powers can be reached at 407-420- 5441 orspowers@orlandosentinel.com.

For complete charts, see printed copy.

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