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Florida pushes unemployed to return to work as job search waiver set to end

The waiver that allowed people to claim unemployment benefits without continuing to search for work expires May 29.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Unemployed Floridians who want to continue receiving benefits after this month will have to start showing proof they’re searching for a job.

The state’s work search requirement has been waived since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year when businesses were forced to shut down or scale back operations. The waiver allows people to claim unemployment benefits without the requirement of having to reach out to five prospective employers each week.

But that waiver is now set to expire on May 29.

Dane Eagle, the executive director of Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity, says people are taking advantage of the weekly state and federal benefits, $275 and $300, respectively. Florida’s benefits are some of the lowest in the nation.

RELATED: DeSantis: Job search requirements to resume for Floridians getting unemployment

With the economy on the rebound, he said, businesses are struggling to fill open positions, especially restaurants.

“Welcome to the new pandemic--the 2021 pandemic is unemployment, not being able to hire,” Eagle said Wednesday during a press briefing in Tallahassee announcing the DEO’s new "return to work" initiative.

There are more than 400,000 unfilled positions available in the state today, according to Eagle. The state unemployment rate stands at 4.7 percent as of March, with roughly 475,000 people out of work.

“I think that looking for work is important, I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a press conference in Tarpon Springs on Wednesday, echoing Eagle’s earlier remarks.

“There is not a single part of Florida I go to where I don’t hear the exact same concern about, ‘we have openings, we need people to fill them.’”

DeSantis added he would rather pay a workforce transition payment to incentivize people to go back to work than continue with the unemployment.

Starting next month, business owners will also now be able to report people not completing the work-search requirement, by either not showing up for an interview or refusing work.

“That is going to be reported to us, and you will no longer be able to collect,” Eagle said.

But some workers who are eager to return to their jobs after being laid off worry about what the work search requirement will mean for them.

Diane Maynor, an on-call banquet server and bartender who lives in Polk County but works at several resorts in Orlando, says that while the hospitality industry is coming back work still isn’t steady.

More weeks than not she's unable to pick up a shift and the competition for banquet work is tough, she said.

“Companies and corporations are starting to book… starting to come back,” she said.

“My phone is glued to me waiting for the little bell to go off to see, but a lot of times when you go on there it’s already gone so you have to be quick to picking up the work."

Before COVID, Maynor said she could make anywhere from $20 to $60 per hour, depending on the resort where she was working. 

“I enjoy my job, I’ve been doing this close to 25 years, the money is good but if they’re forcing us to go out and find work in a different industry we already know we’re not going to make as much money.”

Late Wednesday the DEO issued further guidance on work search exemptions and when job refusal is considered acceptable.

While the work search requirement waiver is ending, Florida’s payout of federal unemployment benefits will continue, at least for now.

Florida is not yet among more than half a dozen states opting to stop paying it prior to the September expiration, but Eagle said he hasn't taken the option "off the table."

Some business owners have blamed the additional federal $300 payment for making it difficult to fill low-wage service jobs. Florida’s weekly max benefit of $275 coupled with the federal $300 payment is equivalent to roughly $14 per hour, still $4 more than the increased $10 per hour minimum wage set to take effect in September.

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