The good news is that Charlotte County’s unemployment rate is now hovering around 7 percent, a vast improvement from the 13.5 percent jobless rate in the midst of the Great Recession. And still, too many local residents have few employment options, they earn on average 25 percent less per hour than their fellow Floridians and the median household income has fallen from nearly $51,000 in 2007 to just over $41,000.

Those are some of the key findings from the Charlotte County Needs Assessment just completed by the United Way in partnership with the Charlotte Community Foundation and the county Human Services Department.