Florida's unemployment rate hit 7 percent in October, the highest rate in 15 years, the state labor department announced Friday.

That's an increase of half a percentage point from the previous month.

Miami-Dade's unemployment rate was 5.8 percent, up only one-tenth of a percentage point.

For the past 12 months, Florida has lost 156,200 jobs, more than any other state, including the much-larger California, which lost 101,300. From September to October alone, Florida lost 27,300 jobs, more than any state except Washington, according to federal statistics, also released Friday.

Those numbers have been adjusted to remove the effects of normal seasonal fluctuations. The government does not publish seasonally adjusted numbers for other Florida counties, making month-to-month comparisons difficult. But here are the raw figures and year-over-year changes:

• Broward: 6.3 percent, up from 3.8 percent a year ago.

• Monroe: 5.4 percent, up from 3.1 percent.

• Palm Beach: 7.4 percent, up from 4.7.

As has been the case for months now, the construction industry is leading the way in job losses, with 19,500 vanished in South Florida during the past 12 months. Also posting big losses were retail jobs (9,200) and financial activities (8,100).

Bright spots included hospitals, with a gain of 3,200 jobs and tourism, with a gain of 1,300.

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