Fewer people file for unemployment benefits in Florida, but claims rise in rest of U.S.
While fewer people filed for jobless benefits in Florida last week, unemployment claims unexpectedly rose across the rest of the U.S., signaling the country’s economic picture remains grim amid the COVID-19 epidemic.
The Sunshine State saw 105,410 new claims for state and federal jobless benefits for the week ending July 18 — 27,421 fewer than the week before, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday.
But the U.S. saw new claims rise from 1.3 to 1.4 million on the week, exceeding analysts’ expectations by 100,000. Since the pandemic began, some 53 million workers have sought unemployment aid at some point — about a third of the pre-pandemic labor force. California, Virginia, Louisiana and Nevada saw the largest increases on the week.
Saturday is the last day of eligibility for $600 of federal unemployment benefits for Florida workers, as well as many others in states across the country. When asked about the expiring benefits this week, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he was not following what Congress has been doing to tee up further assistance.
Thursday’s data also showed fewer Florida workers who stayed on unemployment for at least two consecutive weeks. These continuing claims declined by 222,915 to 691,886. However, Bloomberg reported that due to filing schedules, this data may not capture the full extent of ongoing claimants.
Despite a week’s worth of stable unemployment data for Florida, Census data continue to show worrisome trends in other areas of economic security for Florida and the Miami area.
The percentage of Florida households that say they’re experiencing food insecurity climbed to 11.6% last week, the highest since the end of June. The figure is even higher for the Miami metro area, where 18.6% of households surveyed said they’re experiencing food insecurity. That percentage is a new pandemic-high for the region, and second highest for any major metro during the period.
Nearly half of Florida households surveyed by the Census experienced loss in employment income for the week, although the rate of those expecting a loss in unemployment income fell from 41.2% to 35.2% week on week, the Census said.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 8:59 AM.
