Florida unemployment rate dips to 10.4%
Orlando numbers remain the worst in the state at 16.5%
Florida’s jobless rate fell to 10.4% in June, but tourism-dependent Orlando where coronavirus infections and deaths are rising remains the worst region in the state at 16.5%.
Statewide, the number translates to 1.02 million jobless Floridians as the pandemic continues to rattle the workforce.
The figures released Friday by the state show a significant decline from May when Florida’s unemployment rate surged to a revised 13.7%. During that month, unemployment in the Orlando area also skyrocketed, to 22.6%, a rate that rivaled that of the Great Depression.
However, the unemployment rate, which nationally dropped from 13.3% to 11.1% in June, may not accurately capture the toll the pandemic has had on workers.
Owen Beitsch, an economist at GAI Consultants in downtown Orlando, said the numbers might not include people who have had their pay or hours reduced or have had to take jobs below their skill levels. It also doesn’t differentiate between workers who have been laid off permanently and those who have been temporarily furloughed, or track the number of businesses that have closed for good.
And while the lower rate was seen as good news by most, Beitsch also noted that racial and gender disparities have prevented all workers from bouncing back as quickly.
“So, hidden inside that number, there are a lot of personal and social stories that the numbers don’t address directly,” Beitsch said.
For example, the latest national job numbers from the Department of Labor show that while the white unemployment rate decreased in June to 10.1% from 12.4%, the rate for Black workers dropped to 15.4% from 16.8%. The unemployment rate for adult women sits at 11.2% and for adult men at 10.2%.
The DEO said the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while it has corrected several of the errors that led to inaccurate lower rates, has acknowledged that unemployment could still be slightly higher than
what’s being calculated.
A more real-time snapshot of the unemployment situation could be the weekly reports of how many people are applying for unemployment benefits. Last week, for instance, 129,408 Floridians filed for unemployment for the first time, nearly double the number from the previous week.
Despite much of the state reopening, some employers have been forced to again lay off workers. This month one of the region’s major hoteliers, Rosen Hotels & Resorts in Orlando, permanently laid off 1,107 workers and placed another 841 on unpaid furloughs.
The coronavirus and measures put in place to curtail its spread have had an especially disastrous effect on counties that rely on tourism. Osceola County, which has experienced the worst rates of unemployment in Florida since April, did again in June at 22.9%, followed by Orange County at 17.2%, Lake County at 14.3% and Polk County at 14.1%.
“We certainly know that leisure and hospitality was one of the industries that was impacted the most and that is highly concentrated in Central Florida, and therefore we’ve seen particular impacts to unemployment in that area,” said Adrienne Johnston, chief of the bureau of labor market statistics for the Department of Economic Opportunity, the state agency that releases the numbers.
The hospitality industry has managed to make a small comeback with 170,300 jobs gained since May, thanks in part to the reopening of SeaWorld and Universal Orlando
as well as bars and restaurants across the state. However, the industry is still 268,400 jobs short of where it was in June 2019.
Johnston said she anticipated Disney World’s July reopening will help further drive down unemployment, although a possible second shutdown in South Florida might do the opposite.
Earlier this month, Miami-Dade County shut down indoor dining and gyms and put in place a 10 p.m. curfew to help curb a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Some South Florida leaders have floated reinstating stayat-home orders that would temporarily close non-essential businesses.
If that happens, Johnston said the state could see an increase in the unemployment rate, given that MiamiDade is the most-populated county in Florida with more than 2.7 million residents.
Beitsch also noted that a 10% unemployment rate in Florida could present a different reality than it would in other states that provide more generous unemployment benefits. In Florida, weekly state compensation is capped at $275, one of the lowest in the nation, and those who qualify can only collect checks for up to 12 weeks, compared with most states that offer 26.
Whether Congress extends federal unemployment compensation, a program that was providing workers with $600 weekly payouts on top of their state benefits, could also influence the jobless rate. Without that money, which is set to end July 26, many workers have said they will have no choice but to look for new work, which Beitsch said could result in individuals risking infections to support their families.
Additionally, with Florida’s minimum wage set at $8.46 an hour, those who are able to find jobs may wind up taking positions that pay much less than they were making before the pandemic, prolonging the recovery.
Lakeland couple Shelby Longmire, 29 and Dylan Russell, 27, who work as a bartender and a restaurant server in Orlando, were called back to work in June. But because their jobs rely on packed dining rooms and fat tips, they’re making much less.
They were among the hundreds of thousands of Floridians who waited months to collect unemployment after they were both furloughed in March. Longmire and Russell’s applications were stuck on “pending” and it wasn’t until a friend passed along the phone extension for a helpful call rep at the DEO that their claims were pushed through and they received the back payments.
“We are beyond relieved,” Russell said. “We had called countless other agents recommended by others, but none helped us or even contacted us back.”