Florida jobless claims surge by 227,000 amid coronavirus crisis
Initial unemployment claims in the U.S. surged by 6.6 million last week, while Florida’s number jumped by 227,000, as the economic crisis sparked by the coronavirus crisis continued to rage Thursday.
Combined with the national figure of 3.3 million from two weeks ago, there are at least 10 million Americans looking for work.
Florida’s new claims came from across its economy, according to the U.S. Department of Labor: services, retail trade, manufacturing, wholesale trade, construction, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industries. It’s a sign that the economic downturn is penetrating beyond lower-paid consumer-driven jobs and into white-collar professions.
“The immediate economic effect is hardest on people who work in sectors that have largely shut down — like tourism and hospitality — and on people who don’t have the savings or resources to manage a loss of income,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed.com, in an email. “Professional and technical jobs are less at immediate risk than some other sectors — and white collar jobs can be done from home more easily than most manufacturing and other goods-related jobs. But a broader recession — if one comes — would affect sectors across the entire economy.”
Florida’s latest figure is a jump of 152,687 claims week on week. But that figure is likely still shy of the true number of those seeking to file claims as the state’s unemployment compensation system remains beset by sluggishness.
On Thursday, the head of Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity, Ken Lawson, apologized for the state’s slow response.
“From my heart, I apologize for what you’re going through,” Lawson said during a Thursday morning meeting on the teleconference app Zoom. “There’s a full commitment from me, personally and professionally, to get you the resources you need from my department.”
Lawson said the office received 1.5 million calls in the past week; about a third came from individuals looking to reset PIN numbers that are required to log in to the site.
Since getting laid off from her sales job two weeks ago, Fort Lauderdale resident Lisa McGoldrick said she has been trying to apply for benefits on the state’s site — without success.
“At this point, I cannot even enter my Social Security number,” McGoldrick said in an email. “I have checked [that] my Internet carrier speed is good. I have tried many search engines. The phone number they give you never answers or just automatically disconnects. I am beyond Frustrated. I try all hours day, night, and early mornings, like 2-3 am.”
The state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification site, which is supposed to track layoffs of firms with 100 or more employees, shows only a 4,225 pink slips in the state for the entire month of March — a figure far lower than reality in a state with hundreds of thousands of hospitality workers, most of whom have lost their jobs.
This week, the data firm STR reported that Miami-Dade hotel occupancy has dropped by almost 78% from the same period in 2019. The region’s worst decline was in Monroe County, where just 7.2% of the hotel rooms were occupied in contrast to 92.1% the same week last year. The Keys officially was closed to visitors on March 22.
The number of jobless is also surely to rise next in light of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order to shut down the state for a month.
“Florida’s jump of 152,687 in weekly unemployment insurance claims (205%) from last week is just the beginning,” said Ross DeVol, president and CEO of Heartland Forward, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank. “I fear that Florida will be among the most impacted in the coming weeks. The state was late in issuing stricter orders on social distancing. Thousands of more claims are on the way in the state.”
Florida is not scheduled to release its unemployment rate for March for another several weeks. Only that number will capture those who have been unemployed since before the crisis and unable to find work. Sandy Piqué, an accountant in Pinecrest, counts himself among this group, which he calls “The Forgotten Ones.”
Until new rules were put in place as a result of the crisis, Piqué could not even claim state unemployment because his last job was under a 1099 independent-worker contract. Now that he is able to apply, he must contend with the rush of newly unemployed trying to log in to the site.
He also says his family situation might leave him outside of those able to capitalize on the federal CARES Act. He supports three children over the age of 17 — the age cut off for households with children eligible to receive $500 checks in addition to $1,200 checks for individuals who have work histories.
“n my position, I am facing the very real possibility of being foreclosed on my home, having my cars repossessed, my credit ruined, and seeing everything I have worked for disappear in a few short weeks,” he said in an email.
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 9:31 AM.
