The unemployment rate across the country is dropping, reaching the lowest point it's been in a decade. But, despite that reduction, Citrus County still has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.
- Citrus County working on job creation plan
- Unemployment rate around 5.9 percent
- Plan includes diversifying businesses, construction academy
For the past two years, Tasha Whitaker has been looking for a job that can work with her family's schedule.
"We have five kids. And just dealing with all the kids having doctors appoints or school stuff, you miss out on a lot. And then the pay doesn't make it worth it," she said.
She said there aren't a lot of businesses in Citrus County that can give her the flexibility she needs.
"The bigger, like, nationwide companies are a little easier to work with because you do get those extra benefits of the sick days and paid leave. You can file with FMLA if a company is big. We live in a small town in Florida, there's no big companies here. The little companies don't offer benefits, they don't pay a lot. It's a struggle," she explained.
Right now the unemployment rate in Citrus County is 5.9 percent. That's the third highest in the state. But the Economic Development Authority is hoping bringing more businesses into areas like this will in turn create more jobs.
Recently, county leaders developed a three-part plan for job creation.
First, the Board of County Commissioners has decided to hire a full-time economic development director.
Secondly, they are looking for ready sites to develop and attract new businesses like near the Inverness airport, Port Citrus, and a 550 acre site in the northeast part of the county. The goal is that each of these sites will attract different types of businesses.
"We're looking to even diversify our county now. And that's why I said we want to get into the technology, medical, light industrial, those kind of things to diversify beyond just construction and the power industry,” said Don Taylor, Economic Development Authority for Citrus County Board president.
However, Taylor said there is still a need for skilled construction workers in the county. That's why the Citrus County Builder's Association has partnered with Withlacoochee Technical College to create a construction academy for adults to learn new skill sets.
"We lost a lot of our people that left the county or go out of the county every day for jobs," Taylor said. "And that's a problem now because now that construction industry is coming back in the county. And we're having employers who have a hard time finding people in those trades that they need to build things."
They hope this plan will be a good first step to getting people like Tasha the options they need to find a good paying job.
Taylor said they hope to see the unemployment rate lowered over the next two years. He also said that construction academy should be getting underway later this year.