Miami-Dade’s jobless rate doubled in March. And that’s shy of the true picture
Miami-Dade’s unemployment rate more than doubled in March, from 1.5% in February to 3.7% last month, according to an initial estimate from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
While that percentage is among the lowest in the state, it still represents the biggest jump for any county in Florida, where the unemployment rate climbed from 2.8% in February to 4.3% in March. Experts believe the figures significantly under-represent the true picture.
Across Florida, unemployment rates jumped in every county, reaching as high as 6.7% in Hendry County, east of Fort Myers. Broward County’s unemployment rate climbed from 2.9% in February to 4.2% in March. In the Florida Keys, Monroe County saw the state’s lowest unemployment rate in March, at 2.8%. These figures are not seasonally adjusted.
Labor force size also fell in most counties, dropping the most in Miami-Dade, where the decline totaled more than 6%, or about 100,000 workers. It is not immediately clear why the decline in Miami-Dade was so great; a worker is categorized as in the labor force whether they are employed or unemployed and still looking for work. If not for that decline, the county’s unemployment rate likely would have been even higher.
DEO did not report employment data for the state’s substantial agricultural sector.
Statewide, the greatest month-on-month job losses for the survey period were seen in leisure and hospitality, which saw a decline of 38,600 positions out of a February count of 1,280,000. That includes a loss of 30,500 in accommodation and food services, and a loss of 8,100 in arts, entertainment and recreation.
A report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association estimates about half of the approximately 750,000 hotel-supported jobs in Florida have been lost due to coronavirus-related shutdowns. The most recent jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a more comprehensive survey, showed 459,000 jobs were lost in March across America’s leisure and hospitality sector.
Jobs at health and personal-care stores — such as hair and nail salons and spas — fell by 3.4% as social-distancing practices took hold.
Employment also fell in wholesale trade (-2,000), educational services (-1,500), general service jobs (-1,500), administrative and waste services (-900).
But as lifestyles have changed, some industries have seen a predictable boost in employment, including a 9.5% increase in electronic shopping and mail-order houses, 13.2% increase in warehousing and storage jobs — used for stockpiling goods ordered online — and 14.4% increase in courier services.
DEO’s survey period occurred before many county and state shutdown orders were issued, the agency said.
That delay also explains why DEO reported that the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall metro area showed a net change of zero jobs in its leisure and hospitality sector.
As a result of the survey period, which showed job gains in other areas, DEO reports month-on-month job losses in Florida totaled 36,600 on net for March.
The next state employment report, covering all of March and a preliminary estimate for April, will be released May 22.
Among Miami-Dade’s unemployed is Michael Palou, a chef laid off from Tigertail + Mary restaurant in Coconut Grove. Palou, 28, has now been out of work for more than a month. To get by, he’s gone into his savings and is selling Puerto Rican-style empanadas, called alcapurrias, out of his car. His landlord gave him an abatement on his $750 rent, which helped. But he still hasn’t received an unemployment check from the state or a stimulus check from the U.S. government.
“Basically I’ve got one month left in me,” he said. “After this I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that Florida’s initial jobless claims over the past four weeks, including shutdown periods, had climbed above 650,000. Later in the day, Gov. Ron DeSantis indicated more than 1 million claims had been filed.
And even that is likely an undercount, as the state’s unemployment system has buckled under the weight of the new claims. The online application has been so dysfunctional that the state rolled out a new interface last week and distributed thousands of paper forms in libraries across the state. The phone system has been so overwhelmed with calls that the state has signed contracts for up to $109 million to handle the increased demand.
On Wednesday, DeSantis stripped oversight of the system from Ken Lawson, the head of the Department of Economic Opportunity, and replaced him with Jonathan Satter, Secretary of the Department of Management Services.
DeSantis indicated Thursday that only about 3.3 percent of Floridians who have filed for unemployment in the past month have received help. From Sunday, March 15, through Wednesday, April 15, DEO has made 121,102 payments to Floridians in Reemployment Assistance benefits totaling $47,544,993. This includes 33,623 individual Floridians who applied for Reemployment Assistance benefits after March 15.
On Thursday, DeSantis signed an executive order suspending the biweekly “actively seeking work” reporting requirement by claimants.
This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 10:37 AM.
