Lee County’s unemployment rate continues to rise.
Posting a 13.9 percent unemployment rate for September, Lee County’s jobless population has found no reprieve in the year’s final months.
That number is up from August’s 13.5 percent, and considerably higher than September 2008, when the county had a 9.4 percentage rate.
Overall, the statewide picture is just about as bleak.
Florida posted an 11 percent unemployment rate for September, matching a record set in 1975.
The state’s current unemployment rate is 1.2 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent.
All across the region the jobless fared poorly for the month of September.
Hendry County posted the highest unemployment rate for the entire state of Florida at 16.8 percent.
Collier County posted 13.1 percent, Charlotte 12.7, and Glades posted a 10 percent rate.
There was negative job growth throughout the state, as there was a total of 360,400 jobs lost between September 2008 – 2009.
The industry losing the most jobs was trade, transportation, and utilities. which was down 5.5 percent over the year.
The only sector gaining jobs is private education and health services, which barely registered positive growth at 0.6 percent.
According to the Agency for Workforce Innovation, the state’s unemployment service, the Cape Coral/Fort Myers area lost the most jobs over the year in September 2009.
A total of 15,700 jobs were lost in the area between September 2008 – 2009.
The Naples-Marco Island area was next with 8.700 jobs lost, Sebastian-Vero Beach was next, followed by the Bradenton-Venice-Sarasota area, and finally Palm Coast.
Unemployment numbers for October are due Nov. 20.