Florida’s new unemployment claims drop again, reflecting trend for most of 2025

New unemployment claims in Florida have dropped for the second week in a row, though it was a modest decline.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reports there were 5,414 new unemployment claims filed for the week ending March 22 in the Sunshine State. That’s down by 270 filings from the week ending March 15, when there were 5,684 claims.

The latest drop in first-time jobless claims in Florida reflects the general trend so far in 2025. There have been few weeks so far this year where new unemployment claims have increased, and few periods where jobless filings have exceeded 6,000 in Florida.

The state’s drop in new claims is in line with the national trend. The DOL reports there were 198,917 first-time unemployment claims in the previous week. That’s down by 8,481 claims across the nation from the week ending March 15, a drop of 4.1%.

That’s a larger national decrease than DOL analysts had expected. Projections were calling for about 7,214 fewer first-time unemployment claims, or a 3.5% decline. In the year-over-year comparison, though, jobless filings increased. There were 193,923 initial claims filed for the comparable week in 2024.

Florida’s general unemployment rate did recently rise, however. FloridaCommerce this month published the unemployment rate for January, which came in at 3.5%. That’s the highest monthly unemployment rate for well over a year.

Florida’s monthly unemployment figure held steady at 3.4% for most of the back half of 2024 through December. Prior to that, most of 2024 saw the unemployment rate hovering at 3.3%, and the year started off with a 3.2% jobless rate.

There were 390,000 people out of work this past January in Florida out of a total labor force of 11,188,000 people in the state. That total labor force figure is the highest number Florida has ever seen.

While Florida’s overall jobless rate increased in January, it still remains lower than the national rate, which is 4%. The Sunshine State has maintained a lower jobless rate than the national number for 51 straight months.