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Florida’s Department of Employment Opportunity has been under fire for failing to pay unemployment claims.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – As many Florida residents began receiving hundreds in three weeks worth of recently-approved Lost Wages Assistance, new reports are showing that the unemployment rate in July jumped slightly.
At Florida’s peak in April, 1,218,000 Floridians out of 9,438,000 in the state’s labor force were out of work, bringing the state to a 13.8 percent unemployment rate that had millions of people fighting with an overwhelmed Department of Economic Opportunity website.
As the state reopened over the summer, the unemployment rate dropped to just above 10%, but new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a slightly increased unemployment rate in July.
Unemployment in the Tampa Bay area also increased, from 9.2% in June to 10.1% in July, according to the DEO.
In recent months, the state has sytruggled in its recovery of staggering unemployment, ranking as the fourth-slowest recovery in the country, by financial website, WalletHub.
The national unemployment rate is currently 8.4%, undoing much of the progress that was made in February of 2020 when the unemployment rate in the United States was at it’s lowest point in five decades, down to 3.5%.
Last week, President Trump tweeted praise of the unemployment rate, having reached the single digits for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
“Great Jobs Numbers!” Trump tweeted on Friday. “1.37 Million Jobs Added In August. Unemployment Rate Falls To 8.4% (Wow, much better than expected!). Broke the 10% level faster and deeper than thought possible.”
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