Here are some ominous and encouraging details from the unemployment briefing today by the Agency for Workforce Innovation's Chief Economist, Rebecca Rust: Download July 2011 unemployment
* Florida's unemployment rate in July remained unchanged at 10.7 percent -- the same rate as the revised June rate. It was the 7th highest in the nation.
* The jobless rate equates to the number of people -- 987,000 -- actively seeking work out of a labor force of 9.2 million. However, the total percentage of people who remain jobless is 18.5 percent because 7.8 percent of the unemployed did not actively attempt to seek work in July.
* Unemployment claims dropped in July 17.3 percent.
* Tax revenues rose over last year by 4.3 percent. Florida's visitor count was up 6.9 percent and the number of overseas visitors climbed 17.3 percent.
* The July unemployment rate is nearly one point lower than it was in July 2010 but it is higher than the national average of 9.1 percent.
* There are 987,000 jobless actively looking for work out of a labor force of 9.2 million.
* 64,300 jobs have been created since the first of the year.
* Construction continued to be the sector to lose the most jobs, now down 23,000 from a year ago, a 6.5 percent decrease. Since 2006when construction jobs peaked at 357,000, construction jobs have declined by 52 percent.
* Government jobs saw the second largest dip with a loss of 16,900 jobs over last year when 14,600 were hired for temporary federal census taker positions. Another 1,500 layoffs occurred in state government.
* Unemployment by race: 10.2 percent for whites, 13.6 percent for Hispanics and 16.7 percent for blacks.
* Monroe County had the state's lowest unemployment rate at 6.6 percent while Hendry County had the highest jobless rate at 18.8 percent.
* The metropolitan areas with the lowest unemployment continue to be those with high government, university or military employment: Fort Walton Beach/Destin had a jobless rate of 7.4 percent, Gainesville at 8.7 percent and Tallahassee at 9 percent.
* The metropolitan areas with the highest unemployment were those dependent on construction jobs: Palm Coast at 14.7 percent and Sebastian/Vero Beach at 13.8 percent.
* The Miami metropolitan area gained the most jobs with 15,900 in the last year. It was followed by Orlando with 10,900 and Tampa/St. Petersburg with 10,800.
* The metropolitan area that lost the most jobs was the area home to the shuttle: Palm Bay/Melbourne and Titusville, which lost 5,600 jobs over last year.
* The hospitality and leisure industry gained the most jobs over last year, 41,800, an increase of 4.1 percent.
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