Floridians are dealing with unemployment at record levels amid COVID-19 crisis

DORAL, FL – Unemployment has become a familiar word for many Floridians that right now are dealing with the consequences of being let go of their jobs as COVID-19 is damaging the economy at a fast pace.

According to the state Department of Economic Opportunity, in Florida the unemployment filings for the week that ended in March 28 reached to 222,054, as reported today by SunSentinel. 

The previous week, that ended in March 21, 74,313 claims were received pushing the two-week total for late March to just under 300,000.

For this week through the close of business Tuesday, the department reported receiving 38,348 applications for jobless assistance.

Nationwide, the scenario isn’t better as 6.6 million unemployment claims were filed in a week, as reported Thursday morning by the U.S. Labor Department. Last week, 3.3 million claims were received for a total of almost 10 million Americans that are now looking for a job.  

According to the Miami Herald, Florida’s new situation regarding unemployment now ranks only behind California, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, and Ohio.

The most concerning part is that many think these numbers although alarmingly high, can go even higher once everyone can actually file online for unemployment as many have been unable to do so due to technical difficulties in the assigned websites. 

It is also expected to get a significant amount of claims in the next days taking into account that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a stay at home executive order just yesterday that will be placed for 30 days. 

According to SunSentinel, the industries that have been affected the most with unemployment are hospitality, tourism, retail and transportation. 

The economic struggle has escalated so quickly across the U.S. that Congress had to adopt a $2.2 trillion bailout program, which was signed by President Trump on March 27.

If you have lost your job due to the measures taken to stop the spread of the coronavirus, please go to the ‘Reemployment Assistance‘ section of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and follow the steps.