Nov. 8--On the surface, Liberty County in Florida's Panhandle and Hendry County in South Florida have plenty in common. They are rural with small populations. But Liberty's unemployment rate is 5.3 percent while Hendry's is 16.8 percent -- 11.5 percentage points higher.

Why the astounding difference?

To answer that question, we looked at the five Florida counties with the lowest jobless rates and the five with the highest. They stretch from Destin to Key West. What emerges are snapshots of an enormously challenged but resilient Florida and perhaps some important lessons for the entire state.

First, riding the real estate and construction boom while failing to diversify is a sure ticket to desperate times. Second, agriculture products from oysters, shrimp and citrus to potatoes, sugar and vegetables remain a hugely important slice of the state economy. Third, alternative energy and biomass plants are cropping up surprisingly often across the state though their sources of fuel vary widely.

And fourth, every last person I interviewed demonstrated a "we shall get through this downturn and we shall prosper" attitude that speaks well for Floridians and should bolster the confidence in our state economy -- including Tampa Bay, which is wrestling with its own 11.7 jobless rate.

Turn to Page 6D to see how 10 very different counties are coping in this economy.

Counties with highest unemployment:

Hendry

The highest unemployment rate (16.8 percent) among Florida's 67 counties is one bragging right that interim county economic development director Ron Zimmerly would gladly skip. Hendry is seriously dependent on agriculture, from citrus and sugar cane to cattle and row crops. Citrus is fighting two attacks -- canker and greening -- while the sugar business was upended by the on-again, off-again deal by the South Florida Water Management District to buy a vast land tract from U.S. Sugar in Clewiston.

If the deal goes through, look at 1,100 more lost jobs and the end of as many as 20,000 indirect jobs, Zimmerly said. But Hendry's got some options. Alternative energy firm Southeast Renewables signed a deal to produce ethanol from sweet sorghum to generate electricity for Tampa's Seminole Electric Cooperative. And Hendry is competing to build an intermodal/logistics center that would service the Port of Palm Beach.

"That could possibly be a perfect replacement for our lost U.S. Sugar jobs," reasons Zimmerly. He puts Hendry's chances at "better than 50-50."

Flagler

Doug Baxter's friendly Australian accent can take only so much of the rough edge off a 16.2 percent unemployment rate. That's 5,068 lost jobs. The county chamber of commerce chief has close ties to New York and New Jersey folks who want to retire to Flagler but can't sell their homes up North. Flagler's biggest town, 75,000-strong Palm Coast, is only 10 years old and focused much of its retiree marketing on those two Northeast states way up Interstate 95.

"We put all our eggs in one basket -- housing," Baxter says. The "good news" is Flagler home prices have dropped so much that some folks up North can now afford them without first selling their first homes.

Go west in Flagler, away from the Atlantic beaches (where Flagler tourism is down 18 percent), for an agriculture surprise. Flagler's got big potato farms, with almost all the harvest going to Lay's for potato chips. Mother Nature mashed this year's potato crop with close to 30 inches of rain. Says Baxter: "We're resilient."

St. Lucie

It boomed in the post-2004 clean-up of Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne but became addicted to construction jobs; bad news when housing tanked, sending the county unemployment rate to 15.3 percent. But Linda Cox, county chamber of commerce CEO, has a new mantra: diversify. And she has proof it's working.