By News Service of Florida
An estimated 5,618 first-time jobless claims were filed in Florida last week, according to a U.S. Department of Labor estimate out Thursday.
The figure is down from a revised count of 5,800 for the week ending February 7 and on par with the weekly average since the start of the year that is now 6,083.
Nationally, 206,000 claims were filed last week, down from a revised count of 229,000 the week ending February 14.
The U.S. unemployment rate stands at 4.3 percent. Florida’s jobless rate also stands at 4.3 percent, reflecting mid-December conditions with an estimated 486,000 Floridians qualified as unemployed from a workforce of 11.225 million people.