TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- It may be only a glimmer of hope, but Florida received at least a little bit of good economic news for a change Friday when state officials announced the state's unemployment rate dropped slightly in April. But Flagler County once again had the highest unemployment rate in the state.

Florida's jobless rate last month was 9.6 percent, two-tenths of a percentage point below March's revised rate of 9.8 percent, according to the state's Agency for Workforce Innovation.

The preliminary March figure was 9.7 percent. Workforce Innovation economist Rebecca Rust said the decline is statistically insignificant and should be consider nothing more than a leveling off of unemployment.

"At least it hasn't worsened," Rust said.

It's the first time Florida's jobless rate has eased since March 2006, when it went down by a tenth of a percentage point to 3.3 percent. That turned out to be a bottoming out. After holding at 3.3 percent for five months, Florida's rate began steadily increasing.

"While we don't know if this lower rate is a significant sign of a turnaround in our economy, it is certainly good news for the people of Florida, especially those who are struggling during this challenging time," Gov. Charlie Crist said in a statement released by his office.

Crist, also a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, was touring the state to tout Florida's economic development efforts and meet with business leaders to discuss ways to improve the state's economy.

Florida is one of just 16 states that showed job gains last month, with 1,300 new nonagricultural jobs. That's a relatively small increase, though, and the state still has lost 380,300 jobs since April 2008, second behind California, Rust pointed out. That's a 4.9 percent decline compared to the national figure of 3.8 percent.

It also still left 885,000 workers idle in April out of a labor force of 9.2 million.

In April, tiny Liberty County in the Panhandle had the lowest unemployment rate at 4.6 percent followed by Alachua County at 5.6 percent and Leon and Monroe counties tied at 5.8 percent. Alachua and Leon are the homes, respectively, of the University of Florida and Florida State University.

Flagler County had the highest jobless rate at 14.4 percent -- the fifth consecutive month its held that position. Flagler's high rate is mainly due to manufacturing layoffs and continued weakness in the housing market.

Next in line were St. Lucie County at 12.7 percent, Hernando County at 12.2 percent and Indian River and Lee counties tied at 11.9 percent.

The unemployment rate for the five-county Jacksonville metropolitan area was 9.2 percent. That's a drop from the March rate of 9.4 percent. Baker County's jobless rate increased from 8.9 percent to 9.7 percent, but the other four counties in the area saw their rates fall.

Workforce Innovation's interim director, Cynthia Lorenzo, said the statewide April improvement may be a sign that billions of dollars in federal stimulus spending are beginning to show results.

"We are currently administering $1.4 billion in federal stimulus funds through Florida's unemployment compensation and work force programs," Lorenzo said. "These benefits and services are having a tremendous impact on millions of Floridians and our economy."

The bad news for Florida is that its April jobless rate is still seventh-tenths of a percentage point higher than the national rate of 8.9 percent and 4 percentage points higher than the state's rate a year ago.

Construction remains Florida's hardest hit sector due to the near collapse of the state's housing market. It accounted for 26 percent of total job losses with an April-to-April decline of 105,200 jobs, or 19.8 percent.

The education and health services sector is the only one gaining jobs among Florida's major industries, showing an increase of 17,000 over the 12-month period, or 1.6 percent. Most of that was due to growth in nursing and residential care facilities.