Florida had a slight uptick in initial unemployment claims last week, but the pace remains relatively unchanged since last fall.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday released a report that estimated 5,396 first-time jobless claims were filed last week in Florida, up from a revised count of 5,093 during the week that ended April 22.
Florida has averaged 5,576 claims over the past four weeks. Since the start of November, following a brief spike in the wake of Hurricane Ian, the weekly average stands at 5,705.
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Nationally, 242,000 initial claims were filed last week, up 13,000 from the previous week. Last week’s national total was slightly above a four-week average of 239,250 claims.
Florida had a 2.6 percent unemployment rate in March, with an estimated 283,000 Floridians out of work from a workforce of 10.92 million people.
The state Department of Economic Opportunity will release an April report on May 19.
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