Florida new jobless claims increase for the first time in a month

First-time unemployment rate claims went down for the week in Florida.

Florida’s initial unemployment claims increased for the first time in a month for the week ending April 5.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), there were 6,510 new jobless filings during that week. That’s up by 923 claims for the week ending March 31. It’s the first increase in the figure since early March.

For much of this year, new jobless claims have been below 6,000 each week. The latest report  exceeded that level for first time in over a month. It’s also the largest weekly increase since February.

The latest Florida figure is in line with the national trend.

DOL reports the figures also jumped across the country. There were 215,392 Americans who filed new jobless claims for the week ending April 5. That’s an increase of 15,307 claims over the week ending March 31. That’s a 7.7% increase across the nation.

The national increase is more than DOL analysts had expected. The DOL had projected there would be a 6.1% jump in weekly claims, or 12,286 new filings. The latest figure is also a slight increase over the same comparable week a year ago. There were 215,265 new jobless claims for the same time frame across the country in 2024.

The latest unemployment filings report also is in line with Florida’s general monthly unemployment rates, which have been slightly increasing. The latest jobless rate reported by FloridaCommerce showed February had an uptick. The unemployment rate increased from 3.5% in January to 3.6%. It was the second straight month where the unemployment rate increased after that figure had held steady at 3.4% for most of the back half of 2024.

Florida’s unemployment rate is still lower than the national figure, which came in at 4.1%. It’s the 52nd month in a row that Florida’s jobless figure was lower than the rate across America.