Florida jobless claims dip

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First-time unemployment claims in Florida decreased slightly last week, with the U.S. Department of Labor estimating 5,660 claims were filed. The estimate, released Thursday, was down from a revised count of 6,060 claims during the week that ended April 19. Since the first week of January, Florida has averaged 6,132 claims a week. Over the past four weeks, the weekly average is 6,311. Nationally, an estimated 241,000 claims were filed last week, up from 223,000 during the previous week and the highest weekly total since mid-February. Florida had a 3.6 percent unemployment rate in March, unchanged from February. The March rate reflected an estimated 403,000 people qualified as unemployed from a workforce of 11.2 million. The national unemployment rate in March was 4.2 percent.