Drew Dixon
A week after Florida recorded the biggest jump in new unemployment claims this year, the state has returned to a more normal number of jobless filings.
There were 6,128 unemployment benefit claims for the week ending Oct. 12 before seasonal adjustments, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). That’s a drop of 3,428 filings from the previous week, when there were 9,556 jobless filings in the state, the most for any week this year in the Sunshine State.
The numbers for the week ending Oct. 5, though, came during the week following Hurricane Helene, which slammed Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 26. While the week ending Oct. 12 saw a more normal number of first-time unemployment claims, it remains to be seen what impact the full brunt of Hurricane Milton will have on the state’s jobs picture.
The dramatic drop in new unemployment claims for the week ending Oct. 12 is the biggest weekly drop in Florida this year. The latest decline in jobless claims reflects the national trend.
The DOL reports there were a total of 224,763 weekly initial jobless claims across the country for the week ending Oct. 12, before seasonal adjustments. That’s a drop of 11,416 from the week before, a decline of 4.8%. That’s a substantial decrease from the week ending Oct. 5, which saw a whopping 29.6% spike over the previous week nationally.
Even with the wild fluctuations in weekly jobless claims lately, Florida’s general monthly unemployment picture has remained relatively upbeat this year. The August general unemployment figure for Florida came in at 3.3%, a figure that hasn’t budged since early Spring. State officials are pinning the upbeat unemployment picture in Florida on job development programs.
The Florida general monthly unemployment figure has remained below the national unemployment rate — now at around 4.1% — for 46 straight months.
