Lack of travelers, shoppers kills jobs

More Floridians out of work amid pandemic fears

Despite the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines, consumers remain reluctant to travel or shop as they once did, and it’s casting more people out of work in Florida.

Major airlines are warning of heavy layoffs to contend with reduced travel, a reversal of hopes that the economy was slowly recovering before last year’s holiday season. The slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has not given consumers much reassurance, economists say.

The latest evidence of trouble came Thursday, when the U.S. Labor Department announced that Florida’s first-time unemployment claims rose sharply for a second straight week, even as new claims declined nationally.

For the week ended Jan. 30, new claims rose to 71,046 in Florida, up 8,228 from an adjusted 62,818 the week before, the Labor Department said.

New claims nationally declined 33,000 from the previous week, to 779,000.

Although businesses statewide remain open on orders from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, wary consumers have yet to return to pre-pandemic buying and travel habits that supported Florida’s hospitality, leisure

and retail industries.

Although consumers’ sentiment inched up in January, according to the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research, their opinion about whether now is a good time to buy big-ticket items such as refrigerators, cars and furniture declined.

“Approaching the one-year mark of the pandemic, it is quite striking that new [unemployment] claims remain so elevated,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.

“It is not only the depth but also the duration of the downturn taking a toll.”

Airlines cutting back

A lingering, cloudy forecast for the aviation industry took on a new emphasis this week as American Airlines’ top executives told employees in a memo that more than 13,000 workers are likely to lose their jobs when federal aid to the industry expires March 31, if Congress does not renew it.

“The vaccine is not being distributed as quickly as any of us believed, and new restrictions on international travel that require customers to have a negative COVID-19 test have dampened demand,” American CEO Doug Parker and President Robert Isom wrote in a joint staff memo.

The ramifications for South Florida were not immediately clear, as the airline said in an email Thursday that it is not breaking down the prospective layoffs by market.

American maintains a major domestic and international hub at Miami International Airport and also serves Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Palm Beach International Airport.

The two American executives said they would fight for an extension of federal aid to the industry.

United Airlines, meanwhile, told its employees late last week that 14,000 employees can expect furlough notices.

The industry is currently getting a lift from $15 billion in aid approved by Congress late last year.

It requires the companies to recall employees they furloughed in the fall and to keep them on the payroll through March 31.

The money was the second round of COVID-19 aid for the industry, which got $25 billion last March to sustain employment

through the fall.

Tourism still suffering

Other industries such as hospitality and construction, which provide significant employment in Florida, are also signaling employment cutbacks for March and April.

Bergeron Land Development Inc. of Fort Lauderdale will slice 64 jobs in early April, citing a pullback in state transportation and water management district projects.

Hotels and resorts in Central Florida also have telegraphed layoffs for

March and April due to uncertainties over when the coronavirus pandemic will be brought under control.

Leisure and hospitality businesses in Florida have struggled to recover as tourism lags and residents remain reluctant to venture out.

At the end of December, thousands of previously announced layoffs by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and other entertainment-related businesses took effect.

Abbey Omodunbi, an economist with PNC Financial Services Group, noted that the leisure and hospitality industry lost 500,000 jobs in December.