Jobless claims remain steady in Florida

First-time unemployment claims in Florida remain at a steady pace despite impacts of the omicron variant of the coronavirus and inflation.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 6,081 initial unemployment claims were filed in Florida during the week that ended Jan. 29, down from a revised count of 7,346 during the week ending Jan. 22.

The agency initially projected 6,770 claims had been filed during the week ending Jan. 22. Florida had a 4.4 percent unemployment rate in December, reflecting an estimated 466,000 people qualified as unemployed.

It has averaged 8,031 new claims a week the past four weeks. Since mid-May, when efforts were ramped up by the state to push people back into the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, the weekly average is 7,259 claims.

During the first four weeks of 2020 — before the pandemic slammed into the state’s economy — Florida averaged 5,694 new claims a week.

The weekly average dipped to 5,399 over the next seven weeks, before businesses in mid-March 2020 closed or scaled back because of the pandemic.

Nearly 1.6 million first-time claims --- an average of 265,479 a week --- were submitted in the next seven weeks.

Meanwhile, new claims nationally decreased by 23,000 last week, with an estimated 238,000 first-time applications made.

Tags: News Service of Florida