Florida new unemployment claims increase for first time in 9 weeks, but not by much

Florida saw an increase in new unemployment claims for the first time in two months — but it wasn’t much of an uptick.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor ( DOL ), there were 5,919 first-time jobless filings for the week ending Sept. 13. That’s a small increase over the first week of September, as claims rose by just 116 over the 5,803 claims for the week ending Sept. 6 .

Florida also stayed below the 6,000 new claims, as has been the case for several weeks.

The Sunshine State has rarely seen an eight-week stretch of declining jobless claims. But it’s a reflection of a fairly stable unemployment picture for most of this Summer. The unemployment rate has also held steady at 3.7% dating back to March, and FloridaCommerce officials are expected to release the August figur