By News Service of Florida
Florida last week had its highest number of initial unemployment claims since early this year.
An estimated 6,969 claims were filed during the week that ended May 24, up from 6,177 the week during the week that ended May 17, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.
The estimate was the most for a week since 7,525 claims were filed during the week that ended Jan. 11.
Since the start of the year, Florida has averaged 6,230 first-time claims a week.
The state had a 3.7 percent unemployment rate in April, up from 3.5 percent in January.
Nationally, 240,000 claims were filed last week, 14,000 more than during the previous week.
The national unemployment rate in April was 4.2 percent.