Drew Dixon
The trends for Florida’s new unemployment claims have been volatile this Summer, and the latest increase in filings for mid-July are following that pattern.
U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) figures show there was an increase in jobless filings for the week ending July 12, when there were 7,078 claims filed. That’s an increase of 890 initial claims from the week ending July 5 when there were 6,188, a notable 14.4% hike.
There’s been little consistency in the count of first-time jobless claims since the Spring in Florida.
To begin the year, most weeks showed regular declines, with occasional increases. But early June saw a dramatic change. There was a wild spike in new filings, which jumped past 8,000 for the first week of that month. It was the highest number of new filings for any week this year. But that was countered by steep declines for the next two weeks.
The latest increase in Florida’s first-time unemployment claims matched the direction of the national trend. DOL analysts say there was a hike in initial filings across the country last week, with 260,900 claims filed. That’s an 8.1% week-to-week jump, amounting to 19,539 more new filings across America.
While the national figures showed a hike, it wasn’t as severe as DOL economists had projected. DOL analysts expected there would be an 11.7% increase in national claims, which would have amounted to an increase of 28,261 new filings.
The latest national count is a decrease, though, in the year-over-year comparison. DOL figures found there were 280,555 initial filings for the same comparable week in 2024.
Florida’s general unemployment rate has held at 3.7% in April and May. The June figures are expected to be released by FloridaCommerce, the state’s business development bureau, within days. The unemployment figure has been steadily climbing this year in Florida before leveling off. There has been no decrease in the figure so far this year.
Florida’s unemployment rate is still lower than the national figure, which in June was 4.1%. Florida has been able to maintain a lower jobless rate than the nationwide figure for 55 straight months.
