Drew Dixon
Florida just saw the largest jump in new unemployment claims this year.
U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) figures show there were 8,549 first-time jobless filings in the state for the week ending June 7. That’s the first week this year that exceeded more than 8,000 claims. It’s an increase of 2,851 filings over the 5,698 claims for the week ending May 31.
Thus far in 2025, these reports have delivered mostly good news in Florida. Most weeks have seen declines in new claims. For weeks that did see increases, many were only modest bumps.
New jobless claims haven’t exceeded 8,000 since October and November in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Milton. New unemployment claims exceeded 10,000 shortly after that storm, as thousands of businesses were adversely affected.
The latest jump in Florida’s new jobless claims is reflective of the national data, which also indicated a substantial hike. There were 244,752 new unemployment claims last week nationwide, an increase of 35,783 from the final week of May. DOL notes that’s a substantial 17.1% hike in claims.
DOL economists had expected a notable increase in new claims nationally. Analysts had predicted a 16.8% uptick in those filings, at 35,200.
Last week’s national number was also up year over year. There were 236,046 new claims for the comparable week in 2024.
The overall unemployment rate went up to 3.7% for the state in April, an increase over the 3.6% rate registered in February and March, according to FloridaCommerce data. The May data is expected to be released within a couple weeks.
While the unemployment rate did tick up recently, Florida’s jobless figure is lower than the national unemployment rate of 4.2%. The Sunshine State has had a lower unemployment rate than the national rate for 54 straight months.
