Drew Dixon
The number of weekly first-time unemployment claims decreased for the second week in a row in Florida for the week ending May 25, according to new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) data.
There were 6,113 initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits last week in the Sunshine State. That’s a weekly drop of 499 claims. It’s also the second week in a row that first-time jobless claims in Florida decreased, according to data that is not seasonally adjusted.
Florida is still trying to rebound from a notable jump in the initial unemployment claims that was seen for the week ending May 11. That’s when first-time jobless filings shot up to 7,051, a substantial spike from the week ending May 4, when initial unemployment claims settled at 5,893 after declining for several weeks.
While the past two weeks have seen falling first-time jobless claims, Florida has not been able to get to that lower level reported by the DOL in the beginning of this month.
The Florida trends also cut against the past week’s national figures, which saw an increase in seasonally unadjusted initial unemployment claims across America. The U.S. saw first-time unemployment claims jump to 195,615 filings for the week ending May 25. That’s a 1.5% increase, or an increase of 2,898 new claims, over the period of new filings ending on May 18. That’s a notable change from the previous week, when the national figure dropped by 6.3%.
Florida’s weekly new jobless claims generally have been sliding in the past two months, and the trend reflects a relatively stable unemployment picture in the state. The unemployment rate for Florida, released monthly, has remained mostly unchanged for the past three months.
The latest monthly jobless figure for Florida came in at 3.3% in April when the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity released those numbers last week. That reflected an increase of 0.1 percentage points over the March jobless rate, which saw the same increase over February’s total unemployment rate of 3.2%. February’s jobless figure was unchanged from January.
Florida also has maintained an unemployment rate that has been lower than the national figure for 42 consecutive months. The U.S. unemployment rate for April was 3.9%.
4 comments
Andy
May 30, 2024 at 10:39 am
Gee Maybe Rick Scott and our other MAGA sucker Senator can blame Biden for low unemployment.
Dick Whitaker
May 30, 2024 at 11:05 am
Give credit where credit is due to our fine Governor. Biden is still a moron and would put the most successful Starbucks franchise out of business with his business acumen.
Richard Paula
May 30, 2024 at 10:55 am
Florida the third largest state in the union has a terrible Unemployment Compensation record. It is extremely hard to navigate through the process of seeking compensation. The Scott administration did its best to make it difficult for even deserving applicants to obtain compensation. And, finally, the amount of compensation is woefully inadequate considering the huge jump in the cost of living. The past few administrations have cast an applicant as a con man looking to milk the fund as a con exercise
Brownie
May 30, 2024 at 11:16 am
This red state loaded with corrupt and fascist leaders will never be able to credit what the Biden Administration has done for the citizens of Florida. They will continue to take federal money for infrastructure, employment and take away voting rights,, women’s rights, LBGT rights and anyone else that is not a White Nationalist while the state has already turned brown. Joke is on them.
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