Florida jobless claims down during the holidays
TALLAHASSEE - Unemployment claims in Florida decreased during the year-end holiday period.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor released a report that said an estimated 4,064 claims were filed in the state during the week that ended December 31st, down from a revised count of 4,579 during the week that ended December 24th.
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 January 20th.
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.