DeSantis touts economic recovery as jobless claims drop

Gov. Ron DeSantis urged Floridians to capitalize on what he called a modest economic recovery, even as the state recorded its highest number of COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours.

“At the end of the day, we need our society to function,” DeSantis said Thursday at news conference with U.S. Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia in Jacksonville. “We need our society to move forward.”

Florida’s first-time unemployment claims trended downward for the second straight week as the private sector continued to add back jobs, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The state had 67,070 claims for the week ended July 4, a decline of 17,300 for the previous week, the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday. No claims were processed on the Fourth of July holiday.

DeSantis, saying it is critical for the schools to reopen in the fall, said his administration “spent months saying there were certain things that were essential” to operate such as fast food outlets, Walmart and Home Depot. “If all that is essential, then the education of our kids absolutely is essential. They have been out in the back of the line in some respects,” he said.

Across the country, there were 1,314,000 new jobless claims, the Labor Department said, a decrease of 99,000 from the previous week.

Since May, more than 7.5 million jobs were added back to the national economy, Scalia said.

Still, analysts warned that the continuous drop in first-time weekly claims does not mean the economy is out of danger.

“A recovery is simply that things are getting better,” said William Luther, an economist at Florida Atlantic University. “It just so happens in March and April the economy got really bad. From there, getting better doesn’t mean that’s it’s good. We’re starting from a very low base.”

He said that while more recent employment figures are “definitely good news, and we don’t want to lose site of the fact that it is good news, we are a long way from this being over.”

First-time claims have topped 1 million for 14 straight weeks as states worked to catch up on backlogged jobless applications and businesses have struggled to restart operations as COVID-19 cases continued to spike.

“New claims have dropped for 14 straight weeks despite the uneven nature of COVID-19 restrictions and the outbreak itself,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economics analyst for Bankrate. “Even so, with more bankruptcies and job cuts announced in the retail sector, for example, the economy remains at significant risk in the weeks and months ahead.”

In Florida, the rate of new coronavirus cases continued to stymie the orderly return of business as many owners concluded they could not recall their entire rosters of workers amid surging infection rates. Higher case numbers have again forced local governments to impose restrictions on hours and the numbers of customers who can be served at one time.

In South Florida, Miami-Dade County ordered restaurants this week to close their indoor dining rooms while allowing service to continue outside. Broward County stopped short of following suit, but did order 10 p.m. closures and restrictions on the number of people who can be served at indoor tables.

Hotels such as the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton and

Fontainebleau in Miami Beach informed the state that hundreds of their workers will remain on the sidelines, possibly into the fall, because the coronavirus pandemic is not close to being contained. The Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood extended the furloughs of 915 workers last week because “we did not and could not have foreseen how broadly and deeply the COVID -19 pandemic would spread and affect our business,” the hotel said in a WARN Notice filing with the state.

Some businesses decided to throw in the towel. Chuck’s Steak House, the venerable Fort Lauderdale restaurant founded 46 years ago, announced it will close its doors early next month.

The upshot is more unemployment claims to be filed with the Department of Economic Opportunity, which said that as of Wednesday that more than 1,65 million people have received nearly $9.1 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits since mid-March. Most of that money is from federal programs, The most notable program — a $600 weekly payment to supplement the state payout of $275 a week — ends on July 31.

The jobless claims reports came one day after ADP, the payroll processing giant, reported that private sector employment rose by 2.369 million from May to June, with increases in every major sector but one: information.

Nationally, the hospitality and leisure sector added 966,000 jobs, while small businesses — those that employ between1 to 49 people — added 937,000 jobs. Trade, transportation and utilities added 288,000 jobs, ADP said. Construction was up by 394,000 jobs.

“Small business hiring picked up in the month of June,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and cohead of the ADP Research Institute, said in a statement Wednesday. “As the economy slowly continues to recover, we are seeing a significant rebound in industries that once experienced the greatest job losses. In fact, 70 percent of the jobs added this month were in the leisure and hospitality, trade and construction industries.”

Still, it remains to be seen whether the consumer service industries can withstand continuing spikes in coronavirus cases in Florida and other Sun Belt states without laying off workers to keep operating.