Florida adds 100K unemployment claims in past week

The number of Floridians applying for COVID-19-related unemployment benefits increased in the past week after a decline for much of this month, according to Florida Department of Economic Opportunity data.

There were 3.72 million total jobless claims since the coronavirus outbreak as of this week, that’s up by about 100,000 over the previous week. That weekly increase had fallen to about 90,000 additional claims for two straight weeks earlier in the month.

The first week of August was the last time the weekly jobless claims reached 100,000 new claims in one week. During the worst parts of the pandemic in spring and early summer, there were weeks where about 500,000 new unemployment claims were made.

In the past week, there were 3.56 million unique unemployment claims in Florida, meaning they were not duplicates. Another 3.5 million claims have been processed since the outbreak of the virus. That’s 98% of all claims that have been filed.

There are about 2.69 million people in Florida who are now eligible for state reemployment assistance, federal pandemic emergency unemployment compensation or federal pandemic unemployment assistance. About 644,000 Floridians are not eligible for state or federal employment assistance.

There have now been about 1.9 million total claims paid in Florida, or 93% of the eligible claims.

In all, $14.22 billion has been paid to unemployment claimants in the state, with $10.13 billion coming from federal pandemic unemployment compensation. Another $536.44 million has been paid through federal pandemic unemployment assistance and $549.01 million has come from federal pandemic emergency unemployment compensation.

Florida has paid out about $3 billion since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis as businesses across the state laid off workers, eliminated positions or closed entirely. That’s nearly $100 million more than the previous week, which saw a $90 million single-week increase.