Florida sees big drop in new unemployment claims at the end of August

Florida saw another drop in the number of first-time unemployment claims for the week ending Aug. 29. There were 39,335 claims for that week, down 23.83% from 51,647 in the week prior. That trend continues a fall from a spike of 132,831 new claims for the week ending July 11. Florida's still the fifth-worst for number of new weekly claims, behind California (236,874), New York (63,355), Texas (56,759) and Georgia (50,498). Some parts of Florida's economy have reopened during the Covid-19 pandemic,…