Florida jobless claims dip

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor estimated that 5,838 initial unemployment claims were filed last week in Florida, down from a revised count of 6,081 during the week that ended Aug. 31.

Florida has averaged 6,509 claims during the past four weeks.

The Florida Department of Commerce is scheduled to release a state August rate on Sept. 20. The state rate was 3.3 percent from April through July.

The Department of Labor estimated 230,000 claims were filed nationally last week, up from a revised count of 228,000 the previous week. The national unemployment rate in August was 4.2 percent.

August data from the government showed among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.0 percent), adult women (3.7 percent), teenagers (14.1 percent), Whites (3.8 percent), Blacks (6.1 percent), Asians (4.1 percent), and Hispanics (5.5 percent) showed little or no change. Among the unemployed, the number of people on temporary layoff declined by 190,000 to 872,000 in August, mostly offsetting an increase in the prior month. The number of permanent job losers remained at 1.7 million in August.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was virtually unchanged at 1.5 million in August. The government said long-term unemployment accounted for 21.3 percent of all unemployed people.