Nearly 1 million Floridians have filed new claims for unemployment insurance in the past two weeks, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Labor Department said there were 432,465 new claims filed in Florida in the week ending April 25, down slightly from the revised record high of 506,670 the previous week.
That brings the total number of new unemployment claims over the last six weeks to 1.59 million.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses to shut down or sharply reduce staff in mid-March, new claims in Florida averaged about 5,500 per week in the first 11 weeks of 2020.
Nationally, the number of new unemployment insurance claims fell to 3.84 million in the week ending April 25, from 4.44 million the previous week.
The four-week moving average for new claims was 5.03 million, the Labor Department said.