Florida saw a slight uptick in new unemployment claims in the latest report from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
According to the federal agency’s figures for the week ending Nov. 22, there was an increase of first-time jobless filings in the Sunshine State. There were 5,665 claims in the previous week. That’s up by 381 from the week ending Nov. 15, when 5,284 claims were filed.
That previous federal report on new filings was the first one since the federal government shutdown began Oct. 1. It ended in November after 43 days, making it the longest government closure in U.S. history. The DOL stopped tabulating unemployment statistics during that time frame.
The latest uptick bucks the general trend in Florida from the Summer and into the Fall, when the state mostly saw filings decrease.
The increase for the third week in November also cuts against the usual employment pattern during the holiday stretch, when retailers tend to hire more workers to help handle increases in holiday shopping. The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day usually produces some of the lowest unemployment figures each year.
But the latest Florida figures were in line with the national picture for the week ending Nov. 22, when new unemployment filings also increased across the U.S.
There were 243,922 claims in the latest nationwide report. That’s an increase of 25,712, which is an 11.8% jump from the previous week. DOL analysts had projected an even steeper increase of 32,642 claims, which would have been a 15% hike from the previous week.
In the year-over-year comparison, the latest national number is a drop from the same comparable week in 2024, when there were 145,163 claims.
