Good news: Florida weekly jobless claims take a dip

Despite high gasoline prices and rising interest rates, first-time unemployment claims dipped last week in Florida.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 5,778 initial unemployment claims were filed during the week that ended Saturday.

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That was down from a revised count of 7,035 claims during the week that ended June 11 and 5,796 during the week that ended June 4. Florida has averaged 5,577 claims over the past four weeks.

Nationally, an estimated 229,000 first-time claims were filed last week, down 2,000 from the prior week. That put the average over the past four weeks at 223,500.

The state Department of Economic Opportunity last week said Florida’s May unemployment rate remained at 3 p.m., representing an estimated 313,000 people out of work from a workforce of 10.59 million.

The department will release a June report on July 22.

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