Florida jobless claims rise to highest level since July

The overall pace has stayed fairly steady since since the start of the year.

By The News Service of Florida
| 5:20 p.m. October 14, 2023

State Government

First-time unemployment claims in Florida last week came in at the highest number since the end of July, but the overall pace hasn’t changed much since the start of the year.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday, Oct. 12, estimated 6,535 unemployment applications were filed last week in Florida. That was up from a revised count of 5,418 during the week that ended Sept. 30 and the most for a single week since 6,659 were filed during the week that ended July 29.

The state has averaged 5,816 claims over the past four weeks and 5,815 since the start of the year. Meanwhile, an estimated 209,000 claims were filed nationally last week, the same as in the previous week.

Last Friday, the Department of Labor said the national unemployment rate stayed at 3.8 percent in September. The Florida Department of Commerce will issue a September state rate on Oct. 20.

Florida had a 2.7 percent unemployment rate in August, with 303,000 people qualified as unemployed from a labor force of 11.12 million.