Community college enrollment has started to decline, signaling a possible end to the recession-fueled boom that sent large numbers of local job-seekers back to classrooms.

Enrollment statewide began leveling off last year, but area colleges are now seeing significant dips in their fall term head counts.

The number of students enrolled so far this fall is down 4.4 percent at Hillsborough Community College and 2.5 percent at St. Petersburg College. Pasco-Hernando Community College is seeing an even steeper decline about 8 percent.

Those decreases follow explosive growth double-digit percentages in some years at all three colleges in recent years.

College officials and others offer a variety of explanations for the declines, which show up in both the number of students and the number of credit hours being taken:

Prospective students must work a variety of part-time jobs, leaving little time for classes. The people who returned to college at the height of the recession have completed their programs. Changes to federal financial aid regulations have reduced awards for certain students.

"We think it has a lot to do with students just having to work. That's why they're taking fewer credit hours," said Pat Rinard, St. Petersburg College's associate vice president for enrollment management. "They're piecing together work just to make ends meet."

Those jobs may not be of the high-paying variety, either. At Valencia College in Orlando, for instance, officials attribute a slight drop-off in enrollment to hiring by theme parks.

At Brevard College, where fall enrollment is off by 2.4 percent from last year, officials say the long-planned shutdown of the shuttle program sent many space industry workers back to school in recent years. Now those students have wrapped up their studies, which might account for the decline, said spokesman John Glisch.

Gary Sligh, president of the Association of Florida Colleges, said that people also may be staying out of school because they are finding decent-paying jobs or, at least, think they can.

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Surge at Tampa Bay community colleges ends