'It's time to return to work': Job search requirements back for Florida unemployment

But labor analysts doubt generous unemployment benefits are driving vacancies in low-wage jobs.

James Call, Capital Bureau
USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA

Starting June 1, unemployed Floridians will once again have to contact five employers a week to remain eligible for unemployment benefits.

Gov. Ron DeSantis had waived that requirement last year when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and much of the economy shut down to curb the spread of the coronavirus. 

But earlier this month, DeSantis signed an executive order that suspended all local COVID-19 public health restrictions and declared the emergency over. 

In a bid to boost small businesses’ recovery from the pandemic, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the state's jobs agency, on Wednesday announced the waiver for the job search requirement expires May 29 and will not be extended. 

DEO head Dane Eagle, at a news conference held on a sidewalk in front of a downtown  Tallahassee deli, urged the jobless to rejoin the workforce. He was flanked by local restaurant owners and business advocates. 

“For our economy to heal, it is time to get back to work,” said Eagle, as he launched DEO’s "Return to Work Initiative." 

Whether it is locally owned restaurants or resort destinations, businesses say jobs are going unfilled. 

Florida’s unemployment rate is 4.7%, more than a point below the national average, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce counts 461,000 job openings in the state, with 475,000 people out of work. 

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A gaggle of representatives from the Florida Retail Federation, the National Federation of Independent Business-Florida and the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association stood with Eagle and said workers can’t be found. 

“If we have policies that are incentivizing people to stay home or driving up costs ... we need to let the market take over," Eagle said about the dilemma businesses face. 

As Eagle explained, when federal coronavirus unemployment benefits are added to what Florida offers the combined payout to the unemployed amounts to a wage of more than $14 an hour. Most restaurant, hotel, and office workers make less than $13 an hour, according to state data. 

Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Secretary Dane Eagle speaks during a press conference held to announce the department's new "Return to Work" initiative at Metro Deli in downtown Tallahassee Wednesday, May 12, 2021.

Eddie Agramonte, owner of Gordo's, a popular Cuban restaurant in Tallahassee, said one of his legacy workers — someone whose parents met while working for him — quit and applied for unemployment. 

Stay home 'and make 300 extra bucks a week'?

“I don’t understand why people don’t have that urge anymore to want to continue to rise, instead of just staying home and make 300 extra bucks a week,” Agramonte said. 

Labor experts doubt generous unemployment benefits are driving a labor shortage in low-wage jobs.  

“People aren’t going to turn down a job now and risk not finding another later,” said Katharine Abraham, director of the Maryland Center for Economics and Policy at the University of Maryland, noting that unemployment compensation is time limited.  

Abraham and others point to workers’ health concerns in the pandemic’s aftermath, a lack of childcare options, and a rethinking of career options triggered by the health crisis for the inability of some businesses to find workers. 

James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him Twitter: @CallTallahassee

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