Byron Sutton has a finance degree, but he doesn't work in a bank. Instead, he unloads shipments in the receiving department of a Home Depot -- part-time.

``I've been looking for a full-time job since the first week in February,'' said Sutton, of Pompano Beach. ``In this market, other than being a bank teller -- that's the most financial job you're going to find. I have classmates who have just stopped looking.''

As bad as the unemployment numbers are -- 10.7 percent in Florida -- they don't tell the whole story. While hundreds of thousands of Floridians have lost their jobs because of the Great Recession, thousands more have taken big hits to their paychecks because of limited work hours or a shortage of jobs that use their skills.

Economists call this underemployment.

The full extent of underemployment may be impossible to measure. But we do know this: In addition to the 9.7 percent of workers across the nation who were unemployed in August, another 5.8 percent were working part-time because they couldn't find a full-time job.

If those people were counted as unemployed, the jobless rate would be 15.5 percent.

Up-to-date figures on underemployment aren't available by state.

But in some key Florida industries, the problem is clearly severe.

Take international trade, for example. In June, volumes at South Florida ports were down close to 20 percent from the same time last year.

`KING SOLOMON'

That means less work for the men and women who load and unload the ships.

``Guys that used to work five days a week, instead of 40 hours, if they can work 24 they'd be lucky,'' said Luis Meurice, business agent for Local 1922 of the International Longshoremen's Association.

Total work hours have fallen 22 percent in the past year for the union's 500 workers at the Port of Miami, Meurice said.

``It's tough when you've worked in the same place 20 years and you have to take a 20 percent pay cut because there isn't enough work,'' said Meurice, whose job includes dividing the available work among his members.

``I'm trying to figure out who's going to work tomorrow,'' he said. ``It's like King Solomon with the baby.''

`IT'S REALLY SAD'

The problem is even worse in construction trades.

Miami-based Local 272 of the ironworkers union represents 1,400 workers with skills that include installing rebar and windows and setting up construction cranes. But because of the real-estate bust, work hours have fallen by half in the last year.

``We open our hall at 4:30 every morning, and the guys start coming in at quarter to five,'' said John Becton, the local's president and business agent. ``It's hard to tell these guys who've been looking for work that there isn't any.

``You have to look at the people every morning right across the desk from you,'' he said. ``It's really sad. You've got to pray to God every day.''

`THE WORST I'VE SEEN'

For the longshoremen, especially those low in seniority, short hours are a normal part of the summer season because the cruise industry slows down.

But Lovette McGill, 56, said, ``This year is the worst I've seen since I've been in the industry.''

McGill's grandfather also was a longshoreman, so she knows the drill. The cargo industry has times of feast and famine.

That's why when friends bought new homes in Miramar during the boom, McGill paid off her longtime home in Miami.

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