Drew Dixon
The number of Floridians applying for unemployment assistance dropped again from the previous week, according to Florida Department of Economic Opportunity data released this week.
There were a total of 3.62 million jobless claims in Florida as of this week since the coronavirus outbreak. That’s up 90,000 from the previous week, but represents a continued slow down in the rush of residents seeking unemployment benefits since March.
Last week also saw about 90,000 new claims. That was the first week since March new unemployment claims had been so low. During the throes of the COVID-19 outbreak from March through June, there were weeks where there were 500,000 new claims made.
Of Florida’s total unemployment claims, 3.46 million are confirmed unique claims, meaning they were not duplicates. Another 3.37 million claims have been processed, which translates to 97.4% of the unique claims submitted.
About 1.97 million Floridians are eligible for state reemployment assistance, federal pandemic emergency unemployment compensation or federal pandemic unemployment assistance. About 651,000 Floridians are ineligible for those benefits.
There have now been about 1.88 million total claims paid, or 95.3% of the eligible claims.
In all, about $13.83 billion has been paid to unemployment claimants in the state, with about $9.97 billion coming federal pandemic unemployment compensation. Another $489.64 million has come from federal pandemic unemployment assistance and $455.29 million has been paid by federal pandemic emergency unemployment compensation.
Florida has paid out about $2.91 billion since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. That’s up about $90 million from the previous week. That figure is a smaller increase than the previous week, which saw a $111-million single-week increase.
