Drew Dixon
If there is a recession coming, it isn’t being felt in Florida just yet.
New unemployment claims in Florida have now fallen for three weeks straight. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reports there were 5,393 initial jobless claims for the week ending March 1 in Florida. That’s down by 520 filings from the 5,913 reported for the week ending Feb. 22.
It’s been nearly a month since Florida has seen first-time unemployment claims increase. And even that movement, during the week ending Feb. 8, was only a slight uptick. The new year has mostly seen unemployment claims decrease so far.
Florida’s new unemployment claims figures went against the trend on the national level. There were 224,689 first-time claims before seasonal adjustments across the country for the week ending March 1. That’s an increase of 3,833 claims, or a jump of 1.7%.
While that figure is a slight uptick, it’s a smaller surge than what DOL analysts had expected. DOL economists had projected a weekly increase of 25,158 claims.
The latest first-time jobless filings report also represents an increase of more than 10,000 claims nationwide in the year-over-year comparison. This time in 2024, there were 214,424 jobless filings.
Florida has maintained relatively upbeat jobless reports for much of the past year. There were few weeks that saw significant increases in unemployment claims in 2024 outside of the temporary surges following Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The general monthly unemployment figure has remained relatively solid as well. The unemployment rate in Florida has sat at 3.4% since the Fall. In the Spring and Summer, the jobless figure was 3.3%, according to FloridaCommerce. The state agency has not released the rate for January yet. Florida has had a lower unemployment rate than the national figure for 50 months straight.
