By The News Service of Florida
First-time jobless claims in Florida dropped for a second consecutive week.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 5,806 initial unemployment claims were filed last week, down from a revised count of 6,281 the week ending July 18 and 7,334 the week ending July 11.
The numbers remain close to the state’s weekly average since the start of the year. Including this past week, the average is 6,000 new claims per week.
The weekly estimate comes as the state Department of Commerce in the latter half of July received a series of layoff notifications that will affect more than 1,000 workers over the next several months.
Parallel Florida, LLC has already started to lay off 211 workers after closing cannabis facilities in Wimauma and Lakeland.
In September, Freight Handlers LLC, known as FHI, will eliminate 168 jobs as it stops providing third-party unloading services to some Publix distribution locations in Lakeland and Sarasota.
In October, Magic Leap, a tech company involved with AR glasses, intends to lay off nearly 200 engineering and product development workers in Plantation.
Also, Amazon is temporarily closing a distribution facility in Port St. Lucie on Sept. 17, which will affect nearly 500 employees. The company notes in its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice to the state that some employees will be offered “internal transfer opportunities.”
Be the first to leave a comment on this article.