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.

For the third straight year, enrollment dropped in Palm Beach County's public schools, a change administrators blame on South Florida's high cost of living, faltering economy and shaky real estate market.

After years of struggling to keep up with increasing enrollment, administrators now warn that for the next few years a lower student population could bring unwanted consequences, including delayed construction projects and fewer elective classes.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Lixkarime Padilla's family loves South Florida, but high prices and the sour economy have them thinking it might be smart to move someplace cheaper.

"We have friends who couldn't sell their house here so they rented it out and moved to North Carolina," said the 24-year-old Colombian immigrant. "They said rent is so much cheaper there that they can pay for food and everything else for what they used to pay here just for housing."

Non-Hispanic whites are leaving Broward and Palm Beach counties in droves. Meanwhile, the dramatic growth of Hispanics and other minority groups has slowed to a trickle.

The latest U.S. census estimates, released today, show that the number of non-Hispanic whites in Broward County went down by more than 24,000 between 2006 and 2007, single-handedly accounting for the county's drop in total population. In Palm Beach County, that number dropped by more than 9,000.

Most of Palm Beach County's 38 municipalities lost residents last year but so far, there is no exodus.

Twenty-seven of the county's communities had more people moving out than in for a total loss of 2,238 from 2006 to 2007, according to U.S. Census estimates released today. Broward County didn't fare so well, as 15,000 people total relocated from cities that lost population.