DeSantis seeks more job growth money

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he wants to double funding for a state economic development program and bolster rural infrastructure projects even as weekly unemployment claims in Florida continue to come in at pre-pandemic levels.

DeSantis released a proposed $99.7 billion state budget for next year that included $100 million for the program known as the Job Growth Grant Fund. That would be up from $50 million this year.

“We’ve been able to apply that [program] for some really significant infrastructure projects across the state,” DeSantis said. “That’s going to have a profound impact on our ability to continue to expand our manufacturing base, our logistics.”

Created in 2017 after a battle between lawmakers and then-Gov. Rick Scott about business incentives, the job fund is designed to aid local and regional workforce education programs and infrastructure projects. DeSantis decides how to dole out the money.

DeSantis recently has targeted money from the fund for wastewater work in North Port and St. Pete Beach, to improve vehicle access to the Central Florida Intermodal Logistics Center in Winter Haven and for a diesel-mechanic training program at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville.

The proposals came on the same day that the U.S. Department of Labor reported Florida had an estimated 5,885 new unemployment claims during the week that ended Dec. 4.

That was an increase from a revised count of 4,136 for the holiday-shortened week ending Nov. 27, but still far below the deluge of claims during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Labor Department initially estimated that 3,808 first-time jobless claims had been filed in Florida during the ending Nov. 27. The revised figure was still the lowest for a single week since before March 15, 2020, which is considered the start of the pandemic in terms of unemployment impacts.

Jobless claims leaped from 6,463 the week during the week that ended March 14, 2020, to 74,313 the week ending March 21, 2020. By the end of April, 2020, the state had lost 1.27 million jobs, with hospitality fields hardest hit.

Nationally, more than 80% of jobs lost due to the initial hit of the pandemic have been recovered, with Idaho and Utah surpassing pre-pandemic employment by September of this year.

The Department of Labor reported 184,000 claims were filed nationally last week, down 43,000 from the prior week and the lowest for initial claims in a week since Sept. 6, 1969.

The federal agency reported last week the U.S. added 210,000 jobs in November, less than half what some analysts had projected. But the national unemployment rate also dropped from 4.6% to 4.2%, within 1 percentage point of the pre-pandemic unemployment figure.

Florida’s October unemployment rate of 4.6% reflected an estimated 491,000 Floridians out of work from a labor force of 10.59 million.