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Florida jobless claims drop to pandemic low
First-time unemployment claims in Florida last week dropped to a new one-week low during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimated 6,289 first-time applications were filed in the state during the week that ended July 31, down from a revised count of 10,110 during the week that ended July 24.
The agency had initially estimated 9,082 new claims for the week ending July 24. While still subject to revision, last week’s estimate would reverse a recent upward trend in claims.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity marks the start of the pandemic as March 15, 2020, for unemployment purposes.
The state recorded 74,313 jobless claims during the week that ended March 21, 2020. The week before --- ending March 14, 2020 --- Florida recorded 6,463 new claims.
Since the start of February 2021, the state has averaged fewer than 15,000 new claims a week.
Meanwhile, a national estimate of 385,000 new claims last week was a reduction of 14,000 from the prior week. Over the past four weeks, an average of 394,500 new claims have been filed nationally.
In Florida, the average over the past four weeks stands at 8,457.
A year ago, during the week that ended Aug. 1, 2020, the state recorded 78,286 new applications. The state’s June unemployment rate was 5.0 percent, reflecting that an estimated 523,000 Floridians qualified as unemployed from a workforce of 10.398 million.
A July unemployment report will be issued Aug. 20.
