Florida adds 120,000 new unemployment claims in one week

First-time unemployment rate claims went down for the week in Florida.

Floridians filed more than 120,000 new unemployment claims in the past week as the depths of the coronavirus outbreak linger well into the summer, according Florida Department of Economic Opportunity data released this week.

Total unemployment claims increased to 3.18 million since the pandemic began to sweep through Florida in March, up from 3.06 million the week prior. 

There was a slight slowdown in jobless claims last week, more at the pace of late June and early July. And new claims are far from the 500,000 claims filed weekly in the early months of the economic slowdown.

There were 2.98 million confirmed unique claims for unemployment in the past week, meaning they weren’t duplicates. Of those claims, about 2.7 million have been processed, or about 90.9%.

Some 1.82 million Floridians are now eligible for state or federal unemployment assistance. That’s up from 1.75 million last week. About 1.3 million are eligible for state reemployment assistance, about the same as the week prior. Another 315,448 are eligible for federal pandemic unemployment assistance, a weekly increase of about 10,000. Another 198,969 are eligible for federal pandemic emergency unemployment compensation, a weekly increase of about 49,100. Some 577,445  Floridians are not eligible for state or federal reemployment assistance.

Another 1.75 million claims have been processed in Florida, about 96.6% of the eligible claims.

In all, $10.89 billion has been paid to claimants in Florida, with $7.94 billion coming from federal pandemic unemployment compensation. Another $334.1 million has come from federal pandemic unemployment assistance and $148.07 million from federal pandemic emergency unemployment compensation.

Florida has paid out about $2.47 billion since the pandemic began. That’s up about $150 million from last week.