Another 221,000 Floridians filed for unemployment benefits last week, even as restaurants and retail shops started re-opening with limitations for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic forced the shuttering of businesses around the state.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that 221,905 new jobless claims were filed in Florida last week, up a quarter from the 174,860 claims filed the previous week.
Florida’s unemployment system has been widely criticized for its difficulty in filing claims and also for delays in getting payments. So it’s hard to determine if weekly fluctuations are due to new cases are those cases that have finally been accepted.
