Drew Dixon
New unemployment claims in Florida saw a 16.1% decrease for the week ending July 19.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) shows there were 6,254 first-time jobless filings last week. That’s a substantial decline from the 7,335 claims made for the week ending July 12.
It’s the latest report in what’s been an erratic Summer for initial unemployment claims.
Before Summer, the majority of reports saw decreases for Florida, with only occasional increases. But June started off with an abnormal increase, swelling the number of new claims above the 8,000 mark. That’s the highest number of new claims seen this year. The numbers have surged up and down since.
Florida’s latest decline is in line with the national trend. There were 215,792 initial jobless filings in America last week. That’s a 17.4% drop from the previous week, a decline of 45,319 filings.
That’s more significant than DOL analysts had expected. Economists projected a 15.8% dip in new claims, or a drop of 41,275.
The new national report also showed a decrease in the year-over-year comparison. There were 225,839 initial unemployment filings for the same comparative week in 2024.
While initial jobless filings have shown instability for the past two months, that stands in contrast to Florida’s general unemployment rate. That figure stood at 3.7% for June.
The jobless rate has held steady for three straight months, according to FloridaCommerce. There were 415,000 Floridians who were jobless last month out of a labor force of 11.19 million people.
While the last three months have remained flat for the state’s unemployment rate, the rate is still higher than any figures a year ago and the June 2024 rate was 3.3%. There hasn’t been any decrease in the unemployment rate in Florida this year.
Still, Florida’s jobless figure remains lower than the national rate of 4.1%. The Sunshine State has been able maintain a lower unemployment rate than the nationwide figure for 56 straight months.
