Editor’s Note: Could YOU make it on $275 per week? These days, that will fill your gas tank and buy a pretty meager basket of groceries to last a week. But what about rent? The electric bill? Any medications you need to stay healthy? The math doesn’t math and no amount of budgeting is going to make the numbers work. The unemployment payment has not budged in TWO DECADES. DeSantis and the GOP really don’t care about you and have made it as difficult as possible to collect this meager benefit, including demands that people ‘get to work’ when there is no work in their area to be had. As unemployment continues to rise, more Floridians are going to find out that if they can make it over the gigantic bureaucratic hurdles to collect unemployment benefits….they still can’t make it.
As Florida state lawmakers return to Tallahassee this week to negotiate the state budget, attention is being focused on whether Florida’s economy is going in the wrong direction.
The state’s unemployment rate for March was at 4.7%, tied with four other states at 35th in the nation. That’s above the national unemployment rate of 4.3%. There are now 523,000 jobless Floridians, and the state has lost 22,400 jobs over the past year, according to the Florida Department of Commerce.
“For years we’ve been told that Florida is the ‘economic engine of the nation.’ But if you look at the actual numbers today, the engine is stalling,” Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said during a virtual press briefing Monday morning.
A look at the trendlines of Florida’s unemployment rate shows that it has risen gradually from 3.5% in January 2025. It moved above 4% for the first time in years in November and has stayed above that throughout 2026.
Florida needs to get ‘BACK TO WORK’
One prominent Republican who has been expressing concern for a while now about Florida’s economy is Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.
“Unfortunately, this morning’s jobs numbers confirm what I have been sounding the alarm on for months, and what many Florida families are already feeling — Florida is falling behind on jobs,” Scott posted on social media Wednesday.
His post included a graphic comparing the state’s unemployment rate of 4.7% in March to its 3.6% rate a year earlier.
“We’re losing tens of thousands of jobs every month and our unemployment is behind the national average AGAIN. Something needs to change. There needs to be a relentless focus on growing our economy, recruiting more job creators, and getting Florida BACK TO WORK.”
As he noted, Scott has not been shy in recent weeks in taking note of Florida’s rising unemployment numbers. And it’s certainly nothing new for the former Republican governor (from 2011-2019) to take verbal shots at DeSantis, which he has done throughout the past several years.
Scott has spoken of his differences with DeSantis regarding vaccines, the state’s unemployment system, and how to handle natural disasters in the Sunshine State, among other issues. Scott also endorsed Donald Trump over DeSantis in the race for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
The announcement last week by Spirit Airlines that it was shutting down operations overnight was another blow to the state’s workforce. According to a WARN notice received by the state last week, closure of the discount airline has affected 4,057 employees in Florida.
Taylor County has the highest unemployment rate in the state at 8.4%, followed by Sumter County at 7.8% and Hamilton County at 7.6%.
Miami-Dade has the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 2.9%. That’s followed by Monroe at 3.1%. Pinellas, Seminole, and Wakulla counties are tied for third in the state at 4.1%.
The state’s unemployment program
Driskell blasted GOP state leaders Monday for the fact that while more Floridians now likely to try to obtain unemployment benefits until they land back on their feet, they could face a difficult time.
“What is the DeSantis administration’s response to this rising tide of joblessness? Is it expanding workforce training? Is it raising our abysmal $275 weekly benefit cap, which hasn’t moved in over two decades, when we’re talking about unemployment?” she wondered.
“No. The response is to double down on cruelty. While our neighbors are losing their jobs, this Legislature is busy passing bills to create more roadblocks to benefits. They’re dreaming up new ways to disqualify workers who have paid into the system for years. They call it deterring fraud, but we know what it really is — it is a systematic attempt to abandon Floridians the moment they fall on hard times.
“You can’t claim to be pro-worker while you oversee a system that only pays out to one in 10 people who apply, and you can’t brag about freedom while you build a bureaucratic maze designed to keep people from accessing the very same safety net they earned.”
As Driskell noted, benefits offered from Florida’s unemployment insurance program are among the lowest in the nation. The maximum weekly payout is $275 and its duration is capped at 12 weeks (most states average between 24 and 26 weeks). If the unemployment rate rises above 5%, extensions can go up to 23 weeks.
During the regular legislative session that ended in March, Florida Republicans sponsored legislation called the “Promoting Work, Deterring Fraud Act of 2026” that would have disqualified individuals receiving unemployed benefits if they failed to abide by certain requirements.
The bill (HB 191) passed in the House but its Senate companion (SB 216) never received a vote on the floor, even though it passed through all three of its assigned committees.
The governor hasn’t commented on the rise in Florida’s unemployment rate. He said in 2021 that he had no interest in supporting legislation that would increase the amount of unemployment benefits.