Initial unemployment claims totaled 6.6 million for the week ending April 4 across the nation, and 169,885 in Florida. In the last three weeks, initial claims have totaled 16.8 million in a labor force of 163 million. The number exceeds the total number of job losses over two years during the Great Recession more than a decade ago.
The 16.8 million claims equate to an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent, a rate never reached during the Great Recession, when it peaked at 10 percent. The higher rate was last seen in March 1983, when the rate peaked at 10.8 percent during that recession. The current downturn is expected to dwarf those numbers and approach those of the Great Depression as the coronavirus pandemic’s economic crisis deepens.
Weekly filings in Florida were down from last week’s 227,000 claims, after filings of 74,000 claims the week before. The three-week total of new claims, at 471,000, compares to 291,000 unemployed Floridians in the last unemployment report, before the crisis struck, when the February unemployment rate stood at 2.8 percent. Based on figures released this morning by the U.S. Department of Labor, Florida now has almost 800,000 unemployed people. If the unemployment rate were calculated today, it would be 7.3 percent. Thousands more are expected to file for unemployment. The figures are not broken down by county.
The lower number of claims in Florida this week may not be an accurate reflection of lessening strains, but rather appears to be a reflection of system failures at the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s website, where outdated eligibility criteria and overwhelming demand has locked out tens of thousands of applicants. Several other state systems have also been overwhelmed.
Until Wednesday night, when a new website went live, Florida’s unemployment site still reflected Rick Scott-era rules and criteria, when benefits had been cut from $7,150 over 26 weeks to $3,300 over 12 weeks, and when recipients had to prove that they were searching for work to qualify, even though Gov. Ron DeSantis has suspended those rules. Florida’s system–among the stingiest in the nation–was struggling to accommodate $600-a-week unemployment checks included in the latest federal stimulus bill. Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Ken Lawson publicly apologized last week to applicants.
The department is allowing paper applications, and FedEx is making paper unemployment-compensation applications available at about 100 sites in the state, including the Palm Coast region.
Nationally, the four-week average of weekly unemployment claims increased to 4.3 million. So-called “continued” claims have increased to 7.4 million, exceeding the high of the Great Recession, when continued claims peaked at 6.6 million.
The CareerSource of Flagler Volusia has resources available to help with the unemployment application process.
Online Assistance
If you are having technical difficulties with the CONNECT system, you can call a LOCAL number or HELP in Volusia or Flagler Counties. 386-323-7052 There are 11 staff fielding calls to this line. If you get voicemail, LEAVE a message and your call will be returned.
You can also find technical tips on their Facebook Page (all posts with a blue background are related to the Reemployment Assistance process).
Paper Applications
Due to issues with the CONNECT website, paper applications for unemployment are being accepted. CareerSource has printed copies of the application (English and Spanish) and addressed/stamped envelopes available for pick up outside their office in Flagler (20 Airport Road, Suite E, Bunnell, in the Chamber of Commerce Building)
If your organization would like to provide paper copies to your customers, contact Christine Sikora at christinesikora@careersourcefv.com or 386-323-7082.
Stay well says
Florida unemployment number is underreported. SO many people could not get logged onto the unemployment signup
mark101 says
And every state in this country is experiencing the very same thing. System issues for those trying to log in and those getting cutoff during their application.
mausborn says
Rick Scott ROBBED OVER 10 BILLION WITH A B FROM MEDICAID/MEDICARE!!! HE SHOULD BE SERVING LIFE IN PRISON, INSTEAD HE IS STILL SCREWING FLORIDIANS!!!
Floridians can’t wipe their butts without government assistance and a bottle of opioids.
Dennis says
This is terrible. People have no money, and no food. I’m afraid your going to see crime explode too.
Mike Cocchiola says
All of this, in Florida and in virtually every part of this country, underscores the fact that we were all woefully, even criminally unprepared. Epidemiologists know pandemics can and will occur just as meteorologists know hurricanes and tornadoes will. Yet we consider preparedness for pandemics to be an unnecessary expense. The risk is too small to bear the cost of warehouses full of PPE.
Somehow, I think the Trump Administration will extra work hard to erase COVID-19 form our collective memories and the next pandemic will once again catch us with our PPE down.
Sherry says
Republican Voters. . . Can you handle the TRUTH?
TALLAHASSEE — The staggering unemployment exploding on President Donald Trump’s watch would worry any incumbent running for reelection, but troubles in Florida are injecting an added dose of fear into a jittery GOP.
Already anxious about Trump’s chances in the nation’s biggest swing state, Republicans now are dealing with thousands of unemployed workers unable to navigate the Florida system to apply for help. And the blowback is directed straight at Trump’s top allies in the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott.
Privately, Republicans admit that the $77.9 million system that is now failing Florida workers is doing exactly what Scott designed it to do — lower the state’s reported number of jobless claims after the great recession.
“It’s a sh– sandwich, and it was designed that way by Scott,” said one DeSantis advisor. “It wasn’t about saving money. It was about making it harder for people to get benefits or keep benefits so that the unemployment numbers were low to give the governor something to brag about.”
Republican Party of Florida chairman Joe Gruters was more succinct: “$77 million? Someone should go to jail over that.”
With hundreds of thousands of Floridians out of work, the state’s overwhelmed system is making it nearly impossible for many people to even get in line for benefits.
After a record number of claims were reported Thursday, DeSantis said the state would resort to paper applications, build a mobile app to handle the flood of traffic and deploy hundreds, even thousands, of state workers to provide stopgap help.
Congress last week delivered relief in the form of a $2 trillion stimulus package that directs cash to the unemployed. But to get that money into the pockets of Floridians, the state will have to duct-tape the rickety web-based unemployment system to deliver it.
It’s a monumental task. The system has had problems from its very start in 2013, and was one reason state senators refused in 2015 to confirm Scott’s pick to run the agency that manages unemployment benefits.
The new online system was part of a series of changes designed to limit benefits. The ultimate goal — which it delivered on — was to lower unemployment taxes paid by Florida businesses. A 2011 analysis done by the Florida Legislature estimated that the changes pushed by Scott would save businesses more than $2.3 billion between 2011 and 2020.
Now, as thousands of people try to get help, the system crashes or denies them access. Nearly 400,000 people have managed to file claims in the last two and half weeks. It’s not known how many have tried and failed.
Most of those who do submit applications won’t qualify for aid, and the benefits that are paid out are among the most meager in the country — a maximum of $275 a week.
“This is horrible for people. I don’t want to minimize that,” one DeSantis adviser told POLITICO. “But if we have to look past the crisis, it’s bad for the president and it’s bad for the governor.”
“Everyone we talk to in that office when we ask them what happened tells us, ‘the system was designed to fail,’” the adviser said. “That’s not a problem when unemployment is 2.8 percent, but it’s a problem now. And no system we have can handle 25,000 people a day.”
State auditors have routinely chronicled shortcomings with the CONNECT system, most recently in a report issued in March 2019, two months after DeSantis took office.