Florida's weekly unemployment claims dip
TALLAHASSEE - Despite concerns about a possible recession, the number of first-time unemployment claims filed last week in Florida decreased.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated that 6,511 claims were filed in Florida during the week that ended July 23, down from a revised count of 7,858 during the week that ended July 16.
The state has averaged 6,948 claims over the past four weeks.
Nationally, 256,000 claims were filed during the week that ended July 23, a decrease of 5,000 from the prior week.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity released a report last week that said the state had a 2.8 percent unemployment rate in June, down from a revised rate of 2.9 percent in May. The June number represented 303,000 Floridians unemployed in a workforce of 10.633 million. The state's labor force was up 339,000 people from levels before the COVID-19 pandemic.