Fewer South Floridians are filing their first applications for unemployment benefits, continuing a trend of stability for a battered hiring landscape that is now in recovery mode.

About 12,800 people filed for first-time unemployment benefits last month in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, 27 percent fewer than a year ago. That continued a trend that started in April, when the 12-month drop in new unemployment claims first exceeded 20 percent.

Monthly changes in the claims tend to follow seasonal fluctuations in South Florida’s economy, so yearly comparisons offer a more predictable measure of labor conditions. Nationally, unemployment-claim reports are adjusted for seasonality, and those have shown wobbly gains during the last several months.

The federal Labor Department said Thursday that first-time claims hit a nine-month low last week, down 23,000 to 381,000. Generally, a claims total below 400,000 shows recovery, experts say.

The Miami Herald’s Economic Time Machine tracks 60 local indicators to chart South Florida’s recovery from the Great Recession. Visit the ETM’s headquarters at miamiherald.com/economic-time-machine for the analysis of the latest economic data.