First-time unemployment claims in Florida rolled in last month at a pace similar to the period before the coronavirus pandemic pounded the economy.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimated 3,982 unemployment claims were filed in Florida during the holiday-shortened week that ended Dec. 25.
If unchanged, the estimate would be the fewest number of claims for a single week since another holiday-shortened week in late December 2019 and would put the average of new claims over the past four weeks at 5,347.
In the four weeks prior to March 15, 2020, the date state and federal agencies use to mark the start of the pandemic in terms of jobless claims, the weekly average was 5,367.
The state saw first-time claims spike to 74,313 during the week that ended March 21, 2020, with the number peaking at 506,670 in the week ending April 18, 2020, as more than 1.4 million Floridians were put out of work.
The pace of claims eased during the past year, as the economy was pumped with rounds of massive federal stimulus money and free vaccinations became widely available.
As 2021 ended, state agencies also sent out a series of news releases crediting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to reopen the economy during the pandemic and pointing to such things as corporate expansions, restaurant openings and a rebound in the tourism industry.
“We have seen businesses expanding and relocating in droves — a trend we know will increase in the coming year,” Marc Adler, acting secretary of commerce at Enterprise Florida, said in a statement last week.
The latest state and national numbers about unemployment claims do not appear to show signs of an impact of the fast-spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Nationally, 198,000 first-time unemployment claims were filed during the week that ended Dec. 25, down 8,000 from the prior week. That put the national weekly average the past four weeks at 199,250, the lowest since Oct. 25, 1969.
For Florida, the estimate for the week that ended Dec. 25 was down from a revised count of 5,160 for the week ending Dec. 18. The Department of Labor initially projected 4,862 claims were filed during the week that ended Dec. 18. Initial weekly estimates have been revised upward each week since May 15.
State leaders in May ramped up efforts to get Floridians back into the workforce by withdrawing the state early from two federal assistance programs and reinstating a “work search” requirement for people seeking unemployment benefits.
Since then, the state has averaged 7,247 first-time claims a week, and the unemployment rate has fluctuated from a high of 5.1 percent in July to its November rate of 4.5 percent. The November rate reflected 483,000 out-of-work Floridians from a labor force of 10.63 million.
In the four weeks ending May 15, the weekly average of first-time unemployment claims had been 19,975.
Last week, the state Department of Economic Opportunity — which will release a December unemployment report on Jan. 21 — announced that improving numbers will lead to a reduction in the maximum length of unemployment benefits from 19 weeks to 12 weeks.
State law puts the maximum number of weeks at 12 when unemployment is at or below 5 percent, with an additional week added for each 0.5 percentage point above 5 percent in the third quarter of a calendar year. The number of weeks was pushed up to 19 in 2021 because of the surge in jobless claims after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the state. The third-quarter 2020 unemployment rate was 8.6 percent.
–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
Beachlover says
The work of a great Governor not shutting down our businesses over a flu bug.
Ghostbluster says
The reality is the country as a whole has recovered, despite the deplorable dehumanizing bevaviors of a handful of politicians. The recovery is primarily due to intelligent federal fiscal policy, and, in case you’re remissed, A VACCINE. Who knows where Florida could be at this point had the deplorables in Tallahassee actually been on board with the feds versus their incessant egotistical pissing contests to appease a select few donors.
Steve says
It must be enlightening living in an alternate Reality where one can make it anyway they like kinda Metaversish. But hey You just keep being you and keep the Comedic comments coming. Besides Desantis at best is a Political stiff IMO.
Ray W. says
Beachlover presents as a delusional commenter.
Covid is not the flu, has never been the flu, will never be the flu. Of the millions of viruses out there (some beneficial to human life), covid and the flu are but two of them, each with their variants, but they are connected only by the fact that they are viruses. While cowpox and smallpox are related viruses, neither viral organism is related to either the flu or to covid.
The majority of the thanks for the positive employment news is, obviously, directly attributable to the economic policies initiated by both parties in both the House and the Senate by the first economic stimulus plan (Senate passed it 96-0), which was then signed into law by Trump, plus the second economic stimulus plan passed by mostly Democrats and signed into law by Biden. Indeed, Florida’s governmental budget has been balanced in both 2020 and 2021 by federal stimulus money. Unless someone can link DeSantis to the passage of both economic stimulus plans, our governor is not responsible for the most important part of our economic recovery, incomplete as it is to date. According the national employment data, there are still 11 million job openings nationwide, with 2 1/2 million of the 10 million women who left the workforce during the initial months of the pandemic still opting out of a return to the workforce.
While it is possible that Beachlover is talking to hear his head roar, the more likely explanation is that he is wandering through life fooling himself. It is not that he is completely wrong; he isn’t. Advocating masking and vaccinations and, where scientifically supported, mandating masking and vaccinations in certain situations, such as cruise ships, for example, are a better option than completely shutting down businesses. Thus, it must be conceded that Beachlover is barely right, though less right than he could be if he were to acknowledge and advocate for the more sound scientifically supported options of masking when appropriate and widespread acceptance of vaccinations.
Deborah Coffey says
Yep, that exactly what this beautiful lady said.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-deputy-da-fought-vaccine-131753710.html
joe says
“Private-sector job growth blows past expectations in December, ADP says”
Oh, God! When will this Biden tyranny end?
Bob J says
another breaking news story from fox news from which a payroll company say growth has been seen. But does not state the reason. Turn over is the biggest reason for the inflated numbers.