Florida Department of Economic Opportunity

The state’s unemployment rate now stands at 4.9% as some industries continue to report that people are slow to return to work.

An estimated 503,000 people qualified as unemployed in May, up from 488,000 a month earlier.

State and business officials have argued that the $300 a week in federal aid is keeping people from returning to jobs.

The return of workers to the leisure and hospitality sectors continues to be at a slower pace than in some other industries.

The state Department of Economic Opportunity reported Monday that Florida’s unemployment rate decreased to 4.8% in January, down 0.3 percentage points from a revised December rate.

The state’s jobs agency had not posted a timetable about extended unemployment benefits, and no formal announcement had been made about whether Floridians will be covered for the current week because of when the $900 billion federal package was signed.

The state Department of Economic Opportunity on Friday posted a 6.4 percent jobless rate for November, equal to a revised jobless mark for October. The unemployment rate in November 2019, before the pandemic hammered the economy, was 2.8 percent.

Some states carved out single-day poll workers from being denied unemployment benefits. Florida did not.

By 2022, they estimate visitors will be returning to Florida in numbers close to what the state saw before the coronavirus pandemic.

The unemployment rate of 6.5% in October is down from a revised 7.2% in September.

Among the topics were mail-in ballots and the latest on Florida's embattled unemployment system.

A Leon County circuit judge is mulling whether to allow a potential class-action lawsuit. 19 plaintiffs say persistent problems with Florida’s online unemployment system, known as CONNECT, have prevented them from getting benefits.