New claims for unemployment insurance fell sharply in Florida in the latest week, but remained well above historical norms.
The U.S. Department of Labor said 173,191 new claims were filed in Florida in the week ending May 2, down from 433,103 the previous week. That's a 60% decrease.
Over the past seven weeks, 1.766 million Floridians have filed unemployment insurance claims, an average of more than 250,000 a week.
In the first 11 weeks of 2020, new claims in Florida averaged about 5,500 per week.
Nationally, the number of new claims fell to 3.169 million in the week ending May 2, down from 3.846 million the previous week, the Labor Department said.
The department will release its full report on the nation's April unemployment rate on May 8. This will be the first look at the unemployment rate since the COVID-19 pandemic spurred mass layoffs in the second half of March and expectations are the jobless rate will exceed 15%.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity is scheduled to release its report on statewide unemployment, as well as data for Jacksonville and other metropolitan areas, on May 22.