County unemployment rate increases

Florida's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November 2009 is 11.5 percent, while Highlands County's is slightly higher, according to the Agency for Workforce Innovation.

In Highlands, the percentage of unemployed last month was 11.7 percent. It was 11.4 percent in October.

The rate in November 2008 was 8.5.

Industries losing the most jobs are construction; trade, transportation, and utilities; and professional and business services. These three industries account for more than two-thirds of the job losses in the state.

Health care has been Florida's only growth sector for most of 2009.

Last week, the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, in partnership with the Department of Children and Families, Workforce Florida Inc. and the Regional Workforce Boards, announced a new program designed to create jobs for as many as 25,000 Floridians and support businesses. The state can potentially receive up to $200 million in federal funding through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program for the Florida Back to Work initiative ( http://www.floridajobs.org/workforce/backtowork/) between now and Sept. 30, 2010 to pay for jobs for low-income families receiving cash assistance.

"The rate released today (Friday) reinforces the need for a variety of strategies to help bolster job growth in Florida," said agency Director Cynthia R. Lorenzo on Friday. "Under the leadership of Governor Crist, the Florida Back to Work program and the passenger rail legislation that the governor signed into law this week will help as many as 39,000 Floridians get back to work."

Unemployment benefits extension

This month the Agency for Workforce Innovation launched an online application for the federal extension of unemployment benefits made available under The Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009, also known as the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) Tier III, which took effect last month.

The agency also began mailing out applications for those who do not have computer access. Unemployed workers who exhausted all benefits between Nov. 1 and Dec. 26, 2009, or approximately two-thirds of eligible beneficiaries, have been or will be automatically enrolled and will not need to apply for the extension. Those who exhausted benefits prior to Nov. 1, 2009, will need to apply. To date, more than 25,600 customers have completed online applications, and the agency has paid more than $53 million to customers who either were automatically enrolled or whose online applications have been processed.

Lorenzo also encourages job seekers to visit the Employ Florida Marketplace at www.employflorida.com, Florida's online job bank that provides 24/7 access to a wide variety of local, state and national job openings. Job seekers can post resumes and businesses can post job openings, and both can search the Web site's database to look for potential matches. Employ Florida Marketplace currently lists 146,000 job openings throughout the state.