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Florida's jobless claims down during holidays
Unemployment claims in Florida decreased during the year-end holiday period.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday released a report that said an estimated 4,064 claims were filed in Florida during the week that ended Dec. 31, down from a revised count of 4,579 during the week that ended Dec. 24.
The state averaged 5,641 claims during the previous four weeks. Jobless claims have traditionally slowed across the year-end holidays.
Nationally, an estimated 204,000 jobless claims were filed last week, down 19,000 from the previous week and the lowest in 14 weeks.
Florida had a November unemployment rate of 2.6 percent, representing 280,000 Floridians out of work from a labor force of 10.756 million.
The state Department of Economic Opportunity will release December data on Jan. 20. For all of 2022, the state averaged 6,174 initial claims a week.
That was down slightly from a weekly average of 6,229 in 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the economy, according to Department of Labor figures.
The weekly averages jumped to 83,286 in 2020 and 14,039 in 2021.
