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Florida’s unemployment figures for June have been released and while Florida as a whole improved; Citrus County actually saw an increase in unemployment over May.

The Agency for Workforce Innovation announced that Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for June 2010 is 11.4 percent. This represents 1,056,000 jobless out of a labor force of 9,237,000. The unemployment rate is down 0.3 percentage point from the May rate of 11.7 percent. This is the third consecutive monthly decline in the state’s unemployment rate and the lowest rate since October 2009. Prior to this year, the last time Florida recorded monthly declines in unemployment rates was February 2006.

Citrus County’s unemployment rate is now 13.3%. This was an increase up from May 2010 12.7%. This represents 7,540 jobless out of a labor force of 56,509. May’s numbers were 7,251 jobless out of 57,240 people in the labor force.

Citrus County is ranked number 8 in the state’s highest unemployment rates. Hendry County (16.1 percent) has the highest unemployment rate in Florida in June 2010, followed by Flagler County (15.4 percent), St. Lucie County (14.3 percent), Hernando and Indian River counties (14.2 percent each), and Marion County (13.9 percent).

Most of the counties with the highest unemployment rates in the state experienced seasonal declines in agriculture and related industries. Others had continued weakness in construction and financial activities. There are 47 Florida counties with double-digit unemployment rates in June, up from 44 the previous month.

In June 2010, Liberty County has the state’s lowest unemployment rate (6.8 percent), followed by Monroe and Walton counties (7.4 percent each); Okaloosa County (7.6 percent); Lafayette County (7.9 percent); and Franklin County (8.0 percent).

Many of the counties with the lowest unemployment rates are those with relatively high proportions of government employment. Others had seasonal increases in tourism and increases in employment related to the Gulf oil spill.

To make matters even worse Citrus County Administrator Brad Thorpe announced Friday that 16 currently budgeted positions supported by property taxes are being eliminated from the various county commission departments. These job losses will show up July’s report next month.