Broward County

South Florida, which 40 years ago gave birth to senior citizen icons such as the early bird special and condo commando, is a retirement mecca no more, according to new Census statistics released Wednesday.

Broward County lost 4 percent of its 65-plus population between 2000 and 2010, the Census reported, while Palm Beach County gained a modest 9 percent.

Nearly four years after the start of a devastating recession, South Florida’s recovery barely musters a passing grade.

The hiring landscape can boast of only anemic job growth, but unemployment remains near record highs. Real estate prices are bumping along a bottom. Spending hasn’t kept pace with price increases. Only South Florida’s tourism and cargo industries can boast sustained growth.

Florida, once the nation's oldest state, is losing some of its gray.

Thanks to a lull in retiree migration and an increase in working-age adults, Florida has dropped three places to become the fifth-oldest state in the nation, according to census data released Thursday.

Emptiness is what people see today when they drive through the monogrammed iron gates of Lake Drawdy Reserve in east Orange County. There are paved cul-de-sacs, lakefront lots and fancy frosted-glass streetlights. But nobody lives there.

Thirty years from now, they will likely see 28 upscale homes occupied by young families, residents from abroad, refugees from coastal counties, in-migrants from other states and well-to-do retirees.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After declining for the first time since the end of World War II, Florida’s population grew once again last year, a hopeful yet tentative sign that the worst of the recession may have passed, according to the latest preliminary population estimates from the University of Florida.

The Sunshine State is estimated to have had the modest addition of more than 21,000 residents between 2009 and 2010 after its population fell by more than 56,000 between 2008 and 2009, said Stan Smith, director of UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

For the first time since February 2006, Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has fallen. April unemployment slipped to 12 percent from March’s revised rate of 12.3 percent.

This represents 1,113,000 jobless out of a labor force of 9,282,000, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It’s a small bounce, but Florida’s population should rebound this year from its first loss in more than half a century in a hopeful sign for the struggling state economy, new estimates from the University of Florida show.

The Sunshine State is expected to add about 23,000 residents between April 1, 2009, and April 1, 2010, following a loss of almost 57,000 residents the previous year, according to population projections released today by UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

If you picked up the most recent Time magazine, you probably saw a story captioned: ``A Shrinking Sunshine State.''

And, if you're like many Floridians who are sick of stewing in traffic, you got your hopes up.

The University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, which tracks population trends, recently reported that the state lost 58,294 residents between April 2008 and April 2009.

The following represent city-, county-, and regional-level news stories around the state relating to the BEBR Population Program's recent release of the April 1, 2009 preliminary population estimates.

Brevard's population dipped last year - Florida Today - August 24, 2009
UF: Polk Is Losing People - The Ledger - August 22, 2009

After 21 years at the same Fort Lauderdale boat company, Robert Mulder lost his job. Mulder was laid off in November along with dozens of his co-workers, and now they face a job market that's expected to get worse.

Mass layoffs are putting more people like Mulder out of work. The U.S. Department of Labor said Wednesday that 238,000 people lost their jobs in mass layoffs nationwide in January, a 60 percent increase from January 2007.

The layoffs, which the Labor Department says affected 19,301 Floridians in January, cut across industries and geography.