Florida Jobless Claims Up Slightly

By The News Service of Florida

First-time unemployment claims in Florida had a slight jump last week. The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 6,227 initial unemployment applications were filed during the week that ended May 3, up from a revised count of 5,842 during the previous week. The state has averaged 6,149 weekly claims since January.

Nationally, an estimated 228,000 claims were filed during the week that ended May 3, down from 241,000 during the previous week. The Florida Department of Commerce will release an April unemployment report on May 16. The state had a 3.6 percent unemployment rate in March, with an estimated 403,000 people qualified as unemployed from a workforce of 11.2 million. The national unemployment rate in April was 4.2 percent.