Florida finished the Summer on an upbeat note with a drop in first-time unemployment claims, furthering a trend that has dominated the past few months.
There were 5,590 new jobless filings in Florida for the week ending Sept. 20, according to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) figures. That’s down by 485 filings from the week ending Sept. 13 and the seasonally revised figure of 6,075.
The previous week saw the first uptick in new filings in nine weeks, but new claims are declining again in the most recent report.
The latest figures fell in line with the national trend for last week. There were 180,611 new filings across the country. That’s a decrease by 14,822 claims from the week ending Sept. 13, or a 7.6% decline. DOL economists projected there would be a drop in initial claims, but not by that much. Analysts said there would be a decline of 3,477 new claims nationwide or a 1.8% drop.
First-time claims nationwide also dropped when compared to last year. There were 181,713 claims during the comparable week in 2024.
Florida’s unemployment picture has been relatively stable for much of this year. The general unemployment rate held steady at 3.7% from April through July. But the August jobless figure increased slightly to 3.8%, according to FloridaCommerce data released a week ago.
It also extends a longtime streak for Florida, which has seen a lower unemployment rate than the national figure for 58 straight months. The current jobless figure across the country stands at 4.3%.
The latest overall Florida jobless rate accounts for 424,000 Floridians who are without a job in a labor force of 11.19 million people, according to a FloridaCommerce news release. Across the state, there were 98,200 jobs added in the past year, an increase of 1%.
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