U.S. jobless claims hit 5.2 million as Florida sees new jump
U.S. unemployment claims topped five million for the third-straight week as Florida jobless claims continued to climb.
Initial claims in the Sunshine State climbed to 181,293. Combined with prior week totals, more than 650,000 Floridians are now out of work.
In the past four weeks, 22 million Americans have filed for new unemployment claims, effectively erasing all the job gains made in the past decade.
Florida continues to re-configure its unemployment filing system, bringing on a new director to oversee it.
As McClatchy has reported, there is reason to believe there will be an under- or inaccurate count of jobless claims in the state for the foreseeable future, as thousands of Florida residents continue to struggle to access the state’s outdated portal.
It’s one reason why there is reason to doubt the significance of the combination of relative gains and declines of the past three weeks. Between March 26 and April 2, the jobless figure jumped from about 74,000 to more than 228,000. Between April 2 and April 9, it then dropped to more than 169,000. Then last week it climbed back up to more than 181,000.
Florida, the third-largest state in the U.S., continues to registered fewer claims than Georgia or Pennsylvania.
This developing story wil be updated as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 8:50 AM.
