Florida Jobless Claims Fall 939 to 6,732 as U.S. Filings Drop 4.1%

Q: With jobless claims falling but unemployment rising, which number tells the real story for Florida's job seekers?

For Florida’s job seekers, the unemployment rate tells the more meaningful story. The drop in new jobless claims to 6,732 in the week ending June 13 is a useful short-term signal: it means fewer people filed for benefits that week, so layoffs may have eased after earlier spikes tied in part to the Spirit Airlines shutdown. But initial claims are a narrow, week-to-week measure of new separations, and they can swing sharply. The broader picture is less encouraging. Florida’s unemployment rate had risen for eight straight months and reached 4.8% by April, remaining above the national 4.3% rate. That suggests a larger share of Floridians who want work are still struggling to find it, even if fewer workers were newly laid off in one particular week. Reports of recent net job losses and weak hiring in several industries reinforce that point. These two numbers are not actually contradictory. Claims measure the flow of new layoffs; the unemployment rate measures the stock of people still out of work and looking. Claims can fall while unemployment rises if hiring is too slow, if unemployed workers stay jobless longer, or if job growth is concentrated in sectors that do not match available workers’ skills. So the weekly claims decline is a positive sign on layoffs, but the rising unemployment rate is the better gauge of what Florida job seekers are facing: a labor market where finding a new job is getting harder, not easier.

3 articles · Updated · Gulfshore Business · Jun 19

6,732 first-time unemployment claims were filed in Florida in the week ended June 13, down from 7,671 a week earlier.
The 939-claim decline tracked a broader national easing in layoffs, with U.S. initial jobless claims falling 4.1% to 219,509.
Department of Labor weekly claims data showed Florida moving in step with the nationwide trend in mid-June.