Family Life

10.22.09 | FL News Team

More people are losing their jobs and filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits. The latest word from the Labor Department shows 531-thousand initial claims were filed last week. That's an increase of eleven-thousand from the week before. The total number of claims for the week ending October 10th, including continuing claims, was down to just over five-point-nine-million. Total claims haven't been that low since March.

Florida reported the biggest jump in initial claims filed for the week ending October 10th. Nearly ten-thousand more claims were filed in the Sunshine State due to layoffs in the construction, trade, service and manufacturing industries. New York and Wisconsin also reported big jumps in first-time claims.

In the week ending October 3rd, Oregon was the state with the highest insured unemployment rate at five-point-three-percent. Nevada was right behind with five-point-two-percent. Pennsylvania, California, Michigan, Wisconsin, the Carolinas and Washington State all had insured unemployment rates of more than four-and-a-half-percent.