Florida saw an increase in new unemployment claims for the first time in two months — but it wasn’t much of an uptick.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), there were 5,919 first-time jobless filings for the week ending Sept. 13. That’s a small increase over the first week of September, as claims rose by just 116 over the 5,803 claims for the week ending Sept. 6.
Florida also stayed below the 6,000 new claims, as has been the case for several weeks.
The Sunshine State has rarely seen an eight-week stretch of declining jobless claims. But it’s a reflection of a fairly stable unemployment picture for most of this Summer. The unemployment rate has also held steady at 3.7% dating back to March, and FloridaCommerce officials are expected to release the August figure within days.
In recent weeks, the trend of dropping new unemployment claims for Florida had cut against the national trend of rising filings.
This week, that scenario was reversed. DOL reported that total claims across the U.S. fell by 10,384, to 194,478. That’s a 5.15% decrease from the previous week. It also significantly bucked the DOL economists’ projections, which actually predicted a hike in the national filings by 17,401, or an 8.5% jump.
The number of claims nationwide was up, though, in the year-over-year comparison. There were some 186,835 claims made for the same comparable week in 2024.
Florida had seen regular increases in the unemployment rate between late 2024 into early 2025. But that leveled off in March at the 3.7% figure. And the Sunshine State still has a lower figure than the national unemployment rate of 4.3%. Florida has been below the national rate for 57 straight months.
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