TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Federal labor figures released Thursday show Florida led the nation in a drop in the number of new jobless claims filed last week compared to the previous week.
Some 55,106 Floridians filed for unemployment benefits last week, a decline of 23,180 claims from the previous week, the biggest drop of any state.
The new claims were still historically high. By comparison, at the same time in August 2019, there were 5,978 new jobless claims.
Nationally, the number of laid-off workers applying for unemployment aid fell below 1 million last week for the first time since the pandemic intensified five months ago.
