New claims for unemployment insurance by Floridians skyrocketed in the latest week, perhaps reflecting state officials’ efforts to fix glitches in the filing system.
The U.S. Department of Labor said April 23 that 505,137 new unemployment claims were filed in Florida for the week ended April 18.
That’s up from 180,419 in the week ended April 11 and more than double the previous peak of 228,484 in the week ended March 28.
In the past five weeks, 1.6 million new unemployment claims were filed in Florida, the Department of Labor reported.
It said Florida experienced layoffs in the construction, manufacturing, retail trade, wholesale trade, accommodation and food services, and health care and social assistance industries.
Nationally, the number of initial claims was 4.427 million in the week ending April 18, down from 5.245 million the previous week. However, the four-week moving average for new claims was 5.787 million.