State’s weekly unemployment claims plummet
Relief may only be temporary as virus has spiked in recent weeks
In another sign of an unpredictable job market, Florida’s weekly unemployment claims fell sharply for the week ended June 27 as the national jobless rate dropped to 11.1% last month before a recent spike in COVID-19 cases.
The decline of more than 11,000 new claims statewide to 84,608 came one week after initial applications for benefits had increased.
The June unemployment rate for Florida won’t be reported until late this month. The rate for May was 14.5%.
Nationally, total employment rose nationally by more than 4.8 million people in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. The number of unemployed people fell by 3.2 million to 17.8 million.
But the numbers do not fully account for the substantial recent spikes in coronavirus infections that have swept Florida, Texas, Arizona and California. Statewide and locally, those outbreaks have prompted authorities to ban the consumption of alcohol at bars and to close beaches for the July 4 holiday. Meanwhile, restaurant owners are being forced to modify their hours while some suspend operations voluntarily because they don’t believe they can keep their patrons and employees safe.
This week, for example, the venerable Tropical Acres Steakhouse on Griffin Road in Fort Lauderdale announced it will close its dining room Friday until further notice.
“We will reopen the dining room as soon as we see improvement in the health of our community and can be more confident in the safety of our guests and team,” the management said in a message on its website. It was not immediately known how many jobs would be affected by the closing.
The BLS said the national improvements reflected a resumption of business activity that stopped in March and April due to COVID-19 and government efforts to stop its spread. Employment in leisure and hospitality rose sharply, with gains in retail trade, education and health services, as well as manufacturing, and professional and business services.
“It is a welcome sign to see both new jobless claims and continuing claims on the decline,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate. “Still, they remain extremely elevated and tell a story of continued stress for our society and individuals struggling to get by.”
“A precarious cocktail of risks sits in front of us between the continued prevalence of the virus and historically elevated unemployment,” Hamrick added. “Looking beyond the June employment data, worrisome signs have emerged in recent days regarding a pullback in store traffic and
spending likely COVID-19.” linked to the resurgence of
Small business uncertainty
Many small businesses around Florida remained undecided or unable to ramp up strong hiring programs as federal loans designed to protect payrolls started to run out after their eight-week terms, according to the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business. Congress this week neared an extension of the Payroll Protection Program through Aug. 8 in a bid to distribute an estimated $120 billion in funding that remains unused.
Nationally, economists expected the June jobs report to show that employers added as many as 3 million jobs during the month, on top of the 2.5 million gained in May.
The federal Labor Department has said 22 million jobs were lost in March and April as state and local governments ordered pandemic-related restrictions. That means only a quarter of the jobs lost during the economic downturn would have been restored.
Since mid-March, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has paid more than $8.3 billion in state and federal benefits to more than 1.6 million people, according to agency figures. More than $6 billion is from federal funds that provide $600 in weekly payments that are scheduled to end July 31 unless Congress elects to renew the program.