TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ Florida’s unemployment rate for April is being released.
The state Department of Economic Opportunity was set to issue new jobless figures on Friday.
Florida’s employment picture has been steadily improving for more than a year, but March’s 9 percent rate was still higher than the national jobless figure.
Federal officials earlier this month announced the national unemployment rate dropped from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent in April.
But that was mainly because more people gave up looking for work.
The bad news for jobless workers in Florida is that the state no longer qualifies for extended federal unemployment compensation benefits because of the state’s falling jobless rate.
The extended benefits that once provided up to 20 additional weeks of compensation were cut off on May 12.
