New unemployment claims in Florida are falling, with another reason in latest data
New claims for state and federal unemployment benefits filed by Florida workers continue to steadily decline.
For the week ending July 4, jobless claims from newly laid-off workers in the Sunshine State fell from 84,370 to 67,070, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.
For the U.S., new claims hit 1,314,000, a decrease of 99,000 from the previous week’s 1,413,000 level.
The Wall Street Journal noted there were likely complicating factors around this week’s unemployment claims data release.
“The Independence Day holiday, observed July 3, reduced the number of business days applicants had to file,” it wrote. “It is not required for a worker to seek benefits the same week they are laid off. Also, the seasonally adjusted data tend to be volatile around major holidays, because the timing differs slightly from year to year.”
While the U.S. continues to see more than one million new filers for unemployment each week, those remaining on unemployment benefits continue to drop. In Florida, these continuing claims fell from 741,344 to 648,508.
“While initial jobless claims remain historically high, at more than 1 million per week, this is a gross rather than net number,” Wells Fargo said in a July 2 note to clients. “The actual number of people collecting unemployment continues to steadily decline, as shown by the move down in continuing claims,” or those filing for at least two consecutive weeks.
Still, at more than 18 million, continuing claims remain much greater than they were in the Great Recession.
According to the Census Bureau’s new weekly pandemic survey of economic indicators, more than half of Floridians said they experienced loss in employment income in the period between June 25 and June 30, while 43.2% said they expected to see losses — both record highs since the survey began.
Among Florida small businesses surveyed by the Census Bureau at the end of June, 39.1% said the pandemic has had a large negative effect — the highest rate in three weeks, while those saying it’s having a moderate negative effect hit 45%, a record. For the first time since the pandemic, the percentage of small businesses saying they saw a reduction in employees increased week on week, from 9% to 9.7% — meaning the pace of job losses increased.
Meanwhile, 43.4% of small businesses say it will take at least 6 months to return to normal operations, another record.
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 8:53 AM.
