First-time unemployment claims fall again in Florida

Florida continues to see a slowing of first-time unemployment claims, with applications last week the lowest since the coronavirus pandemic started a year ago.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimated Thursday that Florida had 16,005 initial unemployment claims filed during the week that ended March 6, down from a revised count of 19,020 claims in the week ending Feb. 27.

Florida’s drop came as the U.S. Department of Labor estimated 712,000 first-time unemployment claims were filed nationally last week, down 42,000 from the prior week. It also followed a move by the department Friday to revise Florida’s December unemployment rate from 6.1 percent to 5.1 percent.

During an appearance Friday in Marion County, Gov. Ron DeSantis described the revision in the December rate as “a testament that the state of Florida is doing a good job, we’re getting things done.”

On Monday, he incorporated the reduction into his criticism of how money from a new $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package will be distributed to states. The distribution involves looking at state unemployment rates, but DeSantis contends it should be based on population.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity will post the state’s January unemployment figures on Monday. Since March 15, 2020, the department has handled about 6.5 million claims, which have resulted in nearly 2.3 million claimants receiving more than $23.7 billion in state and federal assistance.

The number of new claims last week marked the lowest total since 6,463 claims came in the week ending March 14, 2020. The total leaped to 74,313 the following week, as the pandemic began causing businesses to shut down or scale back operations.

The weekly peak came April 18, when 506,670 claims were submitted.