Drew Dixon
New unemployment claims dropped slightly in Florida for the week ending Aug. 2.
U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) figures show there were 6,129 initial claims last week. That’s down by 218 filings for the week ending July 26, when there were 6,347.
The latest change continues a trend of up and down fluctuations in jobs reports this Summer in Florida. Early June started with more than 8,000 claims for one week, which was the largest total so far this year. Since then, numbers have fallen to more customary figures, though they have increased some weeks and decreased others.
The latest Florida numbers cut against the grain of the national trend for the week ending Aug. 2, when there were 194,988 new filings. That’s an increase, though only a slight one. The number is up by 1,198 from the previous week, or a 0.6% climb.
That national report also countered what DOL analysts had expected. Labor Department economists predicted a decrease of about 5,036 filings, which would have amounted to a 2.6% fall.
National initial claims fell year to year, though. There were 204,030 filings for the comparable week in 2024.
As for Florida’s overall unemployment rate, it has remained stable for the past several months. The unemployment rate for June was 3.7%, according to FloridaCommerce, the state’s business development bureau. It was the third month in a row that figure remained unchanged.
That amounts to 415,000 Floridians who were out of work in June. That’s out of a labor force amounting to 11.9 million.
Florida’s unemployment rate has remained lower than the national figure for 56 straight months. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the latest national unemployment rate was 4.2%.
