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Florida jobless claims averaging below 5,000
Florida is averaging just under 5,000 first-time unemployment claims a week over the past month, which is below the average from the period before the COVID-19 pandemic crashed the economy.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 4,776 initial jobless claims were filed in Florida last week, up from a revised count of 4,475 during the week that ended May 7.
The estimate put a rolling average over four weeks at 4,928 claims.
That was below the four-week average before March 15, 2020, which state and federal agencies mark as the start of the pandemic for employment purposes.
In the four weeks before March 15, 2020, the weekly average was 5,376.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity will release April unemployment figures Friday.
Florida’s jobless rate in March was 3.2 percent, reflecting an estimated 339,000 Floridians qualified as out of work from a labor force of 10.51 million.
