Florida jobless claims continue to rise
April 9, 2020 - Add another 170,000 Floridians who are out of work to the mounting unemployment statistics. The U.S. Department of Labor's latest report released Thursday morning showed 169,885 people in Florida filed initial claims for unemployment in the week ended Aril 4. That was down from the nearly 227,000 initial claims a week ago. Nationally, there were 6.6 million seasonally adjusted initial claims in the week ended April 4, a decrease of 261,000 from the previous week's revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. "It now seems likely that we have passed the peak of layoffs, but the extent of the damage from COVID-19-related shutdowns is staggering—a cumulative 16.8 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in just three weeks," Wells Fargo Securities wrote in a Thursday morning report. "The insured unemployment rate, the proportion of eligible individuals who are currently receiving unemployment benefits, surged 3 percentage points to 5.1 percent, exceeding the Great Recession peak of 5 percent, which was not reached until May 2009."