More than 223K file new jobless claims in Florida
Trump resort permanently cuts furloughed workers
Despite signs of unemployment claims easing nationally, new claims in Florida rose again to 223,927, and more layoff notices continued to pour in as South Florida hospitality and transportation companies including the Trump National Doral Miami moved to slice payrolls.
Layoffs in the transportation, hospitality and restaurant businesses continued to plague the state’s economy, which has been wracked by shutdowns and restrictions forced by the coronavirus pandemic.
In a new filing posted by the Department of of Economic Opportunity, the golfing resort owned by President Donald Trump said business was so bad that it elected to permanently sever 250 workers who had been placed on furlough in
“Unfortunately, it now appears that the adverse effects of the COVID-19 outbreak will be longer and more substantial than previously foreseeable,” the company said in a letter to the state agency. As a result, the company decided to terminate the workers effective May 15.
On June 1, layoffs and furloughs will go into effect for 541 employees at Carnival Cruise Line’s headquarters in Miramar, as well as for scores of people who were working from home. They include agents, managers and analysts in a variety of departments. Cruise lines have been under a federal “no sail” order since March 14, although Carnival has announced its intention to launch service out of PortMiami, Port Canaveral and Texas on Aug. 1.
For the week ending May 16, claims in Florida rose slightly by just under 1,000 from the week of May 9, when they jumped by 47,000 to 223,052 applications, the federal agency said.
The state reports 194,153 hospitality and restaurant workers filed for unemployment, while 21,407 workers in transportation and warehousing sought help. In retail, 106,896 workers filed claims. More than 340,000 workers filing claims didn’t provide their industry classification.
Figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday showed a national decline in filings to slightly more than 2.4 million, down by nearly 250,000 claims.
While the number of weekly applications has slowed for seven straight weeks, they remain immense by any historical standard — roughly 10 times the typical figure that prevailed before the virus struck. Nearly 39 million people have applied for benefits since mid-March.
An additional 1.2 million people sought aid last week under a new federal program for self-emnity, ployed, contractor and gig workers, who are now eligible for jobless aid for the first time. These figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations, so the government doesn’t include them in the overall number of applications.
“There is little evidence that the reopening of the economy has, as yet, led to any sudden snap back in employment,” said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, a consulting firm.
As of Wednesday, Florida’s Department of Economic OpportuMarch. which disburses benefits to qualified people who lost their jobs, said it has paid 985,957 people more than $2.7 billion in state and federal funds since March 15.
The federal funds paid out under the coronavirus relief act is more than double the amount originating from the state’s unemployment trust fund.
Since the act was signed into law March 27, more than $1.8 billion in federal money has been paid to Florida’s unemployed. The state’s share is slightly more than $884 million since March 15, when claims started to spike in the face of massive layoffs caused by the pandemic.
Earlier this week, Gov. Ron DeSantis said 1.48 million claims had been processed since March 15, but only a little over a half of the people who filed had qualified to be paid $275 in weekly payments from the state and/or $600 in weekly payments from the federal funding made possible by the relief act.
DeSantis defended the struggling agency’s performance in fielding well over a million and a half claims in just two months, saying he had added significant reinforcements to the DEO staff and ordered up improvements to an overwhelmed computerized application system.
Still, people continued to report significant difficulty communicating with the agency online and by phone, saying they are still being cut off from the agency’s CONNECT system or could not reach agency staff members by phone to answer questions.
On Friday, the federal labor department will disclose state unemployment rates for April, which are expected to soar in the wake of massive layoffs in the month across multiple industries. Florida’s jobless rate for March rose to 4.4% from 2.8% in February, and is expected by economists to hit double digits for April.
The national rate for March was 14.8%.