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Florida jobless claims up slightly
New unemployment claims increased last week in Florida but remain similar to pre-pandemic levels.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated that 6,494 first-time unemployment claims were filed in Florida during the week that ended Aug. 21.
That was up from a revised count of 5,432 claims in the week ending Aug. 14.
The agency initially estimated 4,092 claims during the week that ended Aug. 14.
The Florida increase last week came as the number of estimated national claims grew by 4,000 over the previous week.
An estimated 353,000 new jobless applications were filed nationally last week.
Over the past four weeks, the national total has averaged 366,500, the lowest mark since March 14, 2020, when the four-week average stood at 225,500.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity uses March 15, 2020 as the start of the COVID-19 pandemic for unemployment purposes.
Florida has averaged 6,387 new claims a week the past four weeks, compared to an average of 5,376 new claims a week in the four weeks prior to March 15, 2020.
Last week, the Department of Economic Opportunity estimated Florida’s July unemployment rate at 5.1 percent, a 0.1 percentage point increase from June.
The department estimated that 530,000 Floridians were out of work from a workforce of 10.48 million people.
The national jobless rate was 5.4 percent in July.
