Citrus County's unemployment rate dropped slightly in March to 11.4 percent, a 0.3 percent difference from February's unemployment rate of 11.7 percent.

The figures were released on Friday by the state's Agency for Workforce Innovation. In its report for February, agency reported Citrus County's February unemployment rate was 11.6 percent for February, but revised that figure in the March report to to 11.7 percent.

Nearby Levy County's unemployment also dropped by the same rate as Citrus County's, from 10.7 percent in February to 10.5 in March, a 0.2 percent decrease. Marion County's unemployment rates only dropped by 0.1 percent, from 12.3 percent in February to 12.2 percent in March. Hernando County's unemployment figure, however, rose by 0.1 percent. The county's figure for March was 12.9, up from 12.8 percent in February.

The statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March has risen to 9.7 percent, a 0.1 percent increase from February's tallies. The Agency for Workforce Innovation also says that represents 893,000 jobless out of a labor force of 9,210,000. The unemployment rate is 0.1 percentage point higher than the revised February rate of 9.6 percent and is up 4.3 percentage points from the March 2008 rate. The state’s current unemployment rate is 1.2 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate of 8.5 percent.

Florida’s March 2009 unemployment rate of 9.7 percent tied the record high under the current methodology set in January, February, and March 1976. The last time the unemployment rate was higher was December 1975 when it was 10.0 percent (calculated under a different methodology used prior to 1976). Using this different methodology, the rate reached a high of 11.9 percent in May 1975.

Florida’s total nonagricultural employment in March 2009 is 7,447,000, representing a job loss of 424,300, or -5.4 percent compared to March 2008. This is slower than the national rate for March which is -3.5 percent. The March 2009 job loss continues the trend of over-the-year declines that began in August 2007. The downturn started with declines in construction jobs, but has now spread to almost all other major industries.

• Download the March unemployment report (PDF format) here