Department of Labor: Jobless claims see slight uptick in Florida after weeks of declines

First-time unemployment claims dropped for the week ending June 22.

For the first time in a month, weekly unemployment claims in Florida increased, though the uptick was nominal.

U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) figures show there were 5,734 first-time jobless filings for the week ending March 8. That’s up by 168 claims compared to the week ending March 1, when there were 5,566 new claims.

The last time the weekly report saw Florida unemployment filings go up was in early February. Most weeks this year have seen those claims dropping.

The modest increase in Florida’s unemployment claims is at odds with the national trend, which saw 212,817 new claims in the past week. That figure for the week ending March 8 is a 5.8% decline, down by 13,202 claims.

That drop in national first-time jobless claims is more than DOL analysts had projected. The forecast called for a drop of about 10,890 new claims for the week.

The national figures did increase year-to-year. The first week of March last year registered 202,722 first-time filings across the country.

The stable picture regarding new unemployment filings in the state reflects the general unemployment rate, which has held steady at 3.4% for several months. Florida has also had a lower unemployment rate than the national figure for 50 straight months, according to FloridaCommerce.

But the level jobless rate is in contrast to growing worries about the economy among Floridians. The February consumer sentiment survey and analysis conducted by the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research released last week shows residents are becoming increasingly uneasy about the economic outlook.

The consumer sentiment figure fell 2.6 points compared to January’s figure, settling in at 86.9 in February.

“The decline in consumer sentiment is primarily driven by Floridians’ pessimistic expectations about future economic outlooks, which have decreased for the second consecutive month. In particular, expectations for the U.S. economy dropped sharply, nearly reversing the gains seen since the presidential election in November,” said Hector H. Sandoval, Director of the consumer sentiment survey, which tapped 550 Floridians with questionnaires online and through mobile phone contact.