Drew Dixon
The number of Floridians filing new coronavirus-related unemployment claims dropped for the second week in a row, according to Florida Department of Economic Opportunity data released this week.
There have been 3.94 million total jobless claims since the onset of the pandemic, an increase of 60,000 over the previous week. There were 70,000 new claims the first week of September.
Last week saw the lowest increase since the outbreak began to grip the Sunshine State in March. The pandemic created a crisis in the workforce in Florida as countless businesses laid off or furloughed employees while some businesses shut down permanently.
Some weeks saw as many as 500,000 new claims in Florida for unemployment help during the pandemic. That figure dropped roughly to 100,000 or fewer new claims each week since June.
This week’s numbers showed there were 3.78 million unique claims filed in Florida, meaning they were not duplicates. Another 3.72 million claims have been processed, which is about 99%.
There are now about 2.12 million Floridians who are eligible for state reemployment assistance, federal pandemic emergency unemployment compensation and federal pandemic unemployment assistance. Another 677,359 Floridians are not eligible for state and federal reemployment assistance.
A total of about 1.97 million pandemic jobless claims have been paid out in Florida since the outbreak began in March. That’s about 93% of eligible claims that have been paid.
Throughout Florida, $15.97 billion has been provided to those seeking unemployment help since March. Out of that, $11.27 billion has come from federal pandemic unemployment compensation and lost wage assistance. Another $820.75 million has come from federal pandemic emergency unemployment compensation. Federal pandemic unemployment assistance has accounted for another $682.6 million in payments to those needing help.
Florida reemployment assistance has paid out $3.19 billion since the pandemic fell over the state six months ago. That’s about $60 million more than the previous week’s increase, which amounted to $3.13 billion.
