Leon County Unemployment Insurance Claims Down in July

According to recently released labor data, Leon County monthly unemployment insurance claims fell in July.

Unemployment insurance claims are considered a leading indicator. Leading indicators are considered to point toward future events, are upstream in the process, and can give a heads-up for anticipated trends.

The Unemployment Claims Report, provided below, shows the number of July claims were down 13.7% when compared to the number of claims filed one year ago. There were 152 claims file in July 2022 and 244 claims filed one year ago.

A look at the 3-Mnth Ave. data – which smooths out the month to month volatility – shows a 37.7% decline in the number of claims from one year ago.

The chart below shows the number of unemployment insurance claims reported each month since July, 2019. A 3-Mnth Ave. line is also included.

The chart shows that the expected spike in unemployment insurance claims related to the COVID pandemic. It also shows that the post pandemic claims are trending lower than the pre-pandemic numbers.

For example, the average number of monthly claims over the last six months, from February to July, was 127. The average number of monthly claims six months before the onset of the COVID pandemic, from September, 2019 to February, 2020, was 279.