Unemployment rate in Manatee County drops to 8.6%. Florida’s rate remains about 10%

Florida’s unemployment rate dropped to 10.4 percent in June, as the state started the second phase of its economic-recovery effort amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday. The rate was down from an adjusted rate of 13.7 percent in May.

The state had initially announced a 14.5 percent rate for May but adjusted it downward in Friday’s report.

In Manatee County, the unemployment rate dropped from 11.8% in May to 8.6% in June — which was still more than five percentage points higher than the 3.4% in June 2019.

Sarasota County’s unemployment rate dropped from 13.5% in Many to 8.8% last month. In June 2019, it was 3.4%.

The latest numbers indicate an estimated 1.02 million Floridians were out of work in June, a decrease of 298,000 from May, according to the Department of Economic Opportunity.

The release of the June numbers came a day after the U.S. Department of Labor estimated that first-time jobless claims in Florida nearly doubled last week as the state deals with a surge in coronavirus cases. The Department of Labor said 129,408 initial claims were filed during the week that ended July 11, up from 66,941 during the week that ended July 4.