An Inverness masonry contractor's address to the Citrus County Commission on Tuesday put the county's unemployment picture in focus.

Ray Stevenson, of Ray Stevenson Masonry, made a plea to county commissioners to help those now jobless, or virtually jobless, find work in the county.

The latest figures released on Jan. 22 by the state's Agency for Workforce Innovation (AWI) show that the county's unemployment rate was 12.9 percent during December, compared to November's 12.7 percent. Local unemployment numbers are still higher that the unemployment rates for either the nation or state.

Construction has remained at the top of the categories of those employed locally and statewide. The AWI confirms that the industries losing the most jobs are construction; trade, transportation and utilities; and professional and business services. These industries account for approximately two-thirds of the job losses in the state. Health care has been Florida’s only growth sector for most of 2009, the AWI said.

For Stevenson, it's more about jobs than cold, hard facts and figures. "We're sitting at home. We're missing two weeks (of work) at a time. No pay," Stevenson said. "This is devastating. What we want is jobs, jobs and jobs."

He said that the county can't see the lack of jobs as some kind of cycle or a wave of the magic wand. "We've got to pull together," he said. "I'm here to inspire you that we have to do more, because we have people out there only working one and two days a month - and they want to work.

"We need jobs. We need them bad," Stevenson said.

According to statistics released by the county's Building Division on Feb. 3, there were 9,220 permit appplications submitted in 2009. The stats are broken down thus:

• Single Family: 171
• Mobile Homes: 107
• Nonresidential: 594
• Additions: 1,039
• Remodels: 660

Commissioner Joe Meek told Stevenson that the commissioners understand the situation, and that the commission is doing things on several fronts to help generate jobs. Commissioner John Thrumston agreed, and said the county has gotten stimulus money to fund work on infrastructure, is encouraging economic development and is writing a letter to the county's Legislative Delegation to do something so more jobs won't be lost because of the unemployment compensation tax that will soon hit.

"We hear what you're saying," Thrumston said, "And we appreciate you coming here and expressing your concerns for the folks out there because they can't come here, and you can, and we're working hard."

• Related story: County concerned about unemployment compensation tax hike

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