Florida first-time jobless filings drop for the final week of April

First-time unemployment claims dropped in the final week of April in Florida.

The number of first-time unemployment claims in Florida dropped in the final full week of April, according to figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor.

In the week ending April 27, there were 5,805 initial jobless claims in the Sunshine State. That’s down by 546 claims for the week ending April 20, when there were 6,351 new claims in the state. It continues a downward trend of unemployment claims in Florida this month.

The most recent weekly report on the number of initial jobless claims in Florida was a significant decrease compared to the prior week. For the week ending April 20 there was a decrease of 147 initial claims from the week prior, when there was a total of 6,215 first-time filings, according to seasonally unadjusted figures.

The Florida figures reflected the national trend. The Department of Labor reported that the seasonally unadjusted data for the week ending April 27 showed there were 188,740 first time unemployment claims across the country. That’s a decrease of 13,844 first-time claims from the prior week, representing a 6.9% drop for those initial filings.

The weekly national figure of first-time unemployment claims was a significant drop compared to the same time period in 2023 as well. A year ago, there were 191,152 initial unemployment claims in the U.S.

The initial downward move in the April numbers also might reverse the trend seen in the March unemployment figure in Florida. There was a 3.2% unemployment rate last month, as the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported. That was a slight uptick of 0.1 percentage points compared to February.