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The number of new unemployment claims has decreased for a second week in a row in Florida.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published the latest data for first-time unemployment benefit filings for the week ending June 20. The Sunshine State saw another dip, as there were 5,981 filings last week. That’s a decrease of 962 from the previous week, when there were 6,943.
Claims fell by about the same number during the week ending June 13. There were 6,732 claims that week, down by 939 from the report for the week ending June 6.
The latest report is the first time since early May that the Florida numbers have fallen below 6,000. The latest figures also fell in line with the national trajectory.
There were 207,133 initial filings across the country last week. That’s a drop of 13,509 or a 6.1% decline. It’s a more sizable slide than DOL analysts had projected. Economists thought new claims would only fall by 1,592, or 0.7%.
There was also a drop in the year-over-year comparison. There were 227,516 claims in the comparable week of 2025.
The latest decline comes as FloridaCommerce reported the overall Florida unemployment rate stabilized in May. The economic development bureau for the state just published the rate was flat after four straight months of climbing. The jobless figure held steady at 4.8%.
But the Florida unemployment rate has remained higher than the national figure every month this year. The national jobless figure was 4.3% in May, which was unchanged from April.
There were 531,000 Floridians out of work last month out of a total workforce of 11.14 million. The seasonally adjusted figure for nonagricultural employment was 10.02 million, a decrease of 2,000 workers compared to April.
Education, health services, professional and business services, along with leisure and hospitality sectors, proved to be the strongest industries with improvements last month. But financial activities, government employment, and transportation and utilities sectors saw the sharpest job losses.
FloridaCommerce is scheduled to release the June unemployment rate in a few weeks.
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