Pay heed to unemployment system

As the deadly coronavirus tightens its grip, Florida faces another gut punch: a massive surge in unemployment claims by people who find themselves suddenly out of work and needing help to survive.

Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity says it saw a “drastic increase” this week in requests for unemployment benefits, though it can’t be specific. In an email seen by The New York Times, the Labor Department asked states to keep their numbers “embargoed” because these reports are being closely monitored by the financial markets.

But in Washington State, where Covid-19 first took root in our nation, the Seattle Times reports the number of unemployment claims doubled last week over the week before. And Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that because of coronavirus, our nation’s unemployment rate could hit 20 percent.

Florida, meanwhile, has more than $4 billion in the trust fund for unemployment benefits. Trust funds are meant for rainy days. One need only walk outside to see the economic downpour.

One reason Florida has $4 billion in savings is because it’s stingy about helping people who lose their jobs. We offer among the nation’s lowest unemployment benefits and make them difficult to obtain. For one thing, you must apply online. If you don’t have a computer or internet service, you’re supposed to go to the library, though many are now closed.

Florida’s unemployment compensation system demands immediate attention to help families cope with what could be the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

For starters, benefits should increase from a miserly $275 a week and not be capped at 12 weeks, or $3,300 total.

The state also should junk its obsolete formula for determining someone’s eligibility, which refuses to count their most recent quarter of earnings. Counting that last quarter, as most states do, is fairer to low-wage earners and seasonal workers.

Neither should the state continue to calculate a person’s maximum number of weeks based on the unemployment rate. The scale starts at 12 weeks, the shortest relief period in the country. When the jobless rate exceeds 10.5 percent, benefits incrementally climb to a maximum of 23 weeks. But the scale slides only once a year, usually in the fourth quarter. So despite a months-long forecast of gray clouds, Florida’s 12-week limit is likely to remain in place until October.

Florida’s indifference toward those laid off can be traced to the 2011 legislative session. With the state slowly crawling out of the Great Recession, an anti-government tea party seized control of the state Republican Party, which had just elected a new governor, Rick Scott.

In Scott’s first year, the Legislature reduced the maximum number of weeks for unemployment benefits from 26 to 23. It capped benefits at 12 weeks — the shortest period in the country — when the jobless rate drops below 5 percent. It also held weekly benefits steady at $275, where they’ve been for more than two decades.

By contrast, Pennsylvania’s weekly benefit is $573, Vermont’s is $458 and West Virginia’s is $424.

The Florida AFL-CIO called the 2011 state law “a ghoulish attack on the victims of the recession to benefit the big guys at the top who caused it.”

And remember, the recession hit older workers hardest. Some have never found meaningful re-entry into the job market.

A few small rays of sunshine are emerging. Gov. Ron DeSantis says he will ask FEMA, the federal disaster agency, for emergency unemployment assistance. He also plans to waive the requirement that people receiving unemployment benefits prove they’re steadily applying for new jobs. That makes obvious sense, since so many businesses are closed because of coronavirus.

“With the shock to the system, we want to be there and be helpful,” DeSantis said Thursday.

Also at DeSantis’ direction, DEO is racing to hire more than 100 people to address the overwhelming number of claims coming into the state’s website, and answer calls when the website won’t work. The center will operate seven days a week starting Monday.

As we said Friday, because of how Florida’s economy was built, our safety net is in tatters. Our $8.56 hourly minimum wage is below that of other states. Yet state leaders have refused to accept the federal expansion of Medicaid, which would have helped the working poor get medical care.

Just a week ago, DeSantis celebrated the news that Florida’s unemployment rate had fallen to an “all-time low” of 2.8 percent. An announcement from Enterprise Florida said: “Florida is working to maintain the business-friendly climate our state is known for.”

But business-friendly is not workerfriendly.

Florida is hard on people who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. With an increasing number of people beginning to feel desperate, that needs to change.