Florida closes August with notable drop in jobless claims

Image via AP.

Florida’s weekly first-time unemployment claims saw a decrease in the final week of August, capping off a relatively stable summer, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

There were 5,932 initial jobless benefit filings for the week ending Aug. 31. That’s down 479 from the previous week, which was 6,402 before seasonal adjustments.

Nearly all of this summer’s weekly first-time unemployment claims dropped, with the exception of three weeks. Most notably, the week ending Aug. 17 saw a sharp spike, with 7,549 first-time jobless claims. That was the biggest spike since the spring.

But that appears to have been a fluke, since most of the summer months saw decreasing weekly initial unemployment claims fall.

The drop in jobless claims reflects the national trend, at least for the moment. Across the U.S., there were about 1.87 million first-time unemployment claims for the week ending Aug. 31. That’s down 15,306 compared to the previous week.

The weekly figures also reflect the general unemployment scene in Florida, which has been stable throughout the summer.

The monthly general unemployment rate has not budged for the past four months. Florida’s unemployment rate came in at 3.3% for July, when the Florida Department Commerce released its monthly figures in August.

Florida has not only held steady in monthly unemployment claims for four months straight, but the state has seen a lower unemployment rate compared to the national rate for 45 straight months.

“Florida is the number one ecosystem for job creation in the world, continuing to instill confidence in job creators and job seekers with smart fiscal policies and economic stability, and is attracting record numbers of visitors to our state,” said Florida Secretary of Commerce J. Alex Kelly.

Florida hasn’t seen an increase in the monthly general unemployment rate since April, and even then it was only by 0.1%. That was the same modest rate of increase for each month since the beginning of the year up until April.