Floridians laid off in the new year will get seven fewer weeks of unemployment benefits because the state’s jobless rate improved in 2021.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity on Tuesday announced that a formula used to determine the maximum number of weeks of benefits will revert from a pandemic-boosted 19 weeks to 12 weeks.
State law puts the number of weeks at 12 when unemployment is at or below 5%, with an additional week added for each 0.5 percentage point above 5% in the third quarter of a calendar year. The number of weeks was pushed up in 2021 because of the surge in jobless claims after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the state. The third-quarter 2020 unemployment rate was 8.6%.
But with people returning to work as the economy recovered in 2021, the formula will push down the maximum number of weeks starting in January.
“Based on the average 2021 third quarter statewide unemployment rate of 5%, beginning January 1, 2022, any new state Reemployment Assistance claim filed is eligible for up to 12 weeks of benefits,” the agency said Tuesday, using the state’s term for unemployment assistance.
The formula doesn’t affect the maximum of $275 in weekly payments the state provides, among the lowest amounts in the nation.
Florida’s jobless rate stood at 5.1% in July, 5% in August and 4.8% in September. Since then, the rate has fallen to 4.5%, reflecting 483,000 out-of-work Floridians in November from a labor force of 10.63 million.
The start of the pandemic is marked...
A Cuban national who became a U.S. citizen in 2015 has had her citizenship revoked after a federal court in Florida found that she had concealed her role in a money laundering scheme when she appl...