Pace of jobless claims falls in Florida but rises in U.S.

The number of Floridians filing for unemployment benefits for the first time fell for the second straight week. But the figure climbed in the rest of the U.S., suggesting the national economic picture remains grim.

For the week ending July 25, Florida workers filed 87,062 new claims for unemployment, down from 108,976 the week prior.

Nationally, new claims climbed by 12,000 to 1,434,000. And the insured unemployment rate, or the percentage of workers on unemployment for two consecutive weeks, hit 11.6%, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from the previous week’s rate.

Meanwhile, 51.8% of Miami-area households — a record since the start of the pandemic — said last week they expected a loss in employment income, according to the Census’ weekly household pandemic survey. In Florida, the figure climbed from more than 35% to 38.1%.

And a record number of Florida households, 51.2%, said they had already experienced a loss in employment income. In the Miami metro area, the figure hit 56.6%, a slight increase from the week prior. The survey also showed about one in eight Miami-area households are still experiencing food insecurity; for the state, the figure is about one in nine. Both represent week-toweek declines.