New unemployment claims drop for the second week in a row

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First-time unemployment claims in Florida have fallen for a second week in a row.

New U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) figures show there were 5,698 new jobless claims for the week ending Feb. 22 in the Sunshine State. It’s a modest drop from the week ending Feb. 15, when there were 5,791 filings. That’s a drop of 99 claims before seasonal adjustments.

Even with only a slight decline, the latest numbers show a fairly strong trend for the state in 2025 thus far. There have been few weeks where the number of jobless filings went up.

Florida’s latest report was in line with the trend on the national level. There was a modest drop in claims across the country, with a total of 220,541 filings. That’s down by 2,997 from the last week, or a 1.3% decrease.

National unemployment claims are up year over year, however. There were 195,774 initial claims for the comparable week in 2024.

The weekly figures in Florida are reflective of a fairly upbeat unemployment picture in the past year.

The latest general unemployment rate is 3.4%, just a small uptick from the 3.3% rate seen in Florida through the Spring and Summer months, according to FloridaCommerce.

Florida’s general unemployment rate has remained below the national jobless figure for 50 straight months. As of January, the national jobless rate was 4%.

January’s unemployment figure for Florida is expected to be released within days by FloridaCommerce.

Florida, meanwhile, continues to add jobs to the workforce, according to FloridaCommerce. December saw 17,900 private-sector jobs added. The number of private-sector jobs compared to a year ago has increased by 122,800. That increase outpaced the national private-sector job growth rate of 1.3% in the same time span.

A Florida TaxWatch economic forecast released this month also projected continued job growth in the state for the next half decade.

According to the projection, the number of new jobs created in the state will definitely go up each year. But the pace of job growth could waffle. The TaxWatch study found there were 178,600 new jobs created in 2024. That figure will drop to about 121,900 in 2025. The forecast shows a steady decline in that figure, falling to 77,900 in Florida in 2027. But that fall-off will see a turnaround in 2028, with 80,900 new jobs created, and will escalate to 128,700 created in Florida in 2030.