The number of first-time unemployment claims increased in Florida for the first full week of April.
U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) figures show there were 6,146 initial jobless filings for the week ending April 11 in the Sunshine State. That’s a jump of 562 claims over the week ending April 4, when there were 5,584.
The Florida hike in new claims is in line with the national trend last week. DOL officials say there were 213,873 filings across the country. That’s a 6% increase over the previous week’s figure, a jump of 12,116 claims.
The national increase is more modest than DOL economists had projected. They thought there would be a jump of 23,749 claims, or an 11.8% increase from the previous week.
In the year-over-year comparison, the latest national number is down from the comparable time frame in April 2025, when there were 220,962 filings.
The increase in Florida comes as FloridaCommerce announced this month that the state’s unemployment rate is increasing. January’s unemployment rate came in at 4.5%. That’s up from December’s rate of 4.3% in the Sunshine State.
FloridaCommerce, the state’s economic development agency, only compiled January’s figures this month due to delays after last year’s federal government shutdown disrupted employment data collection. The agency is only now getting back up to speed in analyzing the data for the past several months.
The January data shows a significant result, in that Florida’s unemployment rate exceeded the national rate for the first time in nearly five years. January’s national unemployment rate was 4.3% after seasonal adjustments.
There were 499,000 jobless Floridians in Florida in January.
