Florida unemployment applications increase

New unemployment applications in Florida unexpectedly increased last week, a sign that the economic recovery from the pandemic has yet to take off.

For the week ending Oct. 3, new filings increased to 40,200, from 32,373 the week before. So-called continuing claims, or the number of workers who collected unemployment for at least two consecutive weeks, fell from 373,194 to 273,985 — though this might have been a sign that some workers might have exhausted their 12 weeks of state benefits.

Thursday’s report is the first to incorporate Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order fully reopening the state — though both Miami-Dade and Broward have kept some restrictions, such as limiting restaurant capacity, in place.

DeSantis’ order also came after Disney announced it would be laying off thousands of workers. On Wednesday, the Orlando Sentinel reported the company would be laying off 8,857 part-time union employees, on top of 6,700 non-union Disney World employees set to be laid off by Dec. 4.

The latest unemployment picture was little better for the U.S. as a whole, with initial jobless applications coming in at 840,000.

While this represented a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 849,000, The Wall Street Journal reported economists were expecting U.S. claims to come in at 825,000.

The levels remain significantly above pre-pandemic figures, when new claims for the U.S. averaged a little more than 200,000 a week. They are down from the pre-pandemic high of 7 million in March.