After holding steady for several weeks, the number of new claims for unemployment insurance filed by Floridians surged in the week ended Jan. 9.
The number of new claims tripled from 24,797 in the week ended Jan. 2 to 75,444 in the most recent week, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Jan. 14.
New claims had been slowly declining since the spring of 2020 when COVID-19 business closings caused big layoffs. The number of new claims peaked at 506,670 in the week ended April 18.
New claims by Floridians had averaged about 26,000 for eight-straight weeks before last week’s surge. But that’s still well above the average weekly total of about 5,500 in the first 11 weeks of 2020, before pandemic-related shutdowns began.
The Labor Department reported an unexpectedly large 181,000 increase in new claims filed nationally for the week ended Jan. 9 to 965,000.
The weekly data on new claims does not break down figures for metropolitan areas.
The latest data on unemployment in the Jacksonville area showed the jobless rate rose by 0.4 percentage points in November to 5.2%.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity is scheduled to report the December rate on Jan. 22.