Third wave brings another 6.6 million coronavirus jobless claims in the U.S.
Nationwide the number of laid-off workers who applied for unemployment benefits dropped by 219,000 last week. Florida saw 169,885 new claims.

By Graham Brink and Richard Danielson
Tampa Bay Times
Published: Apr 9, 2020

Layoffs caused by efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus continue to hollow out the U.S. labor market, with 6.6 million more Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.

So over the last three weeks, 16.7 million workers, more than a 10th of the nation’s workforce, have applied for unemployment benefits.

In Florida, 169,885 laid-off workers managed to navigate the state’s flawed unemployment claims website to file an application last week. Florida’s three-week total of new claims exceeds 472,000.

Michael Newell of Tallahassee lost his job in medical sales last month after business began drying up. He’s been advertising online to pick up work as a landscaper and managed to file for unemployment more than two weeks ago.

“I’m still waiting,” he said. “There’s no news, and I don’t really want to fight with the phone system after hearing all of the horror stories.”

Last week’s job losses come on top of 10.1 million layoffs recorded in the previous two weeks: 6.8 million for the week of March 28 and 3.3 million for the week of March 21.

The three-week surge in unemployment claims is being fueled in part by a new group of people never before eligible for unemployment benefits: self-employed workers, independent contractors and gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers. For the first time, Congress allowed those workers to seek benefits as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package it passed at the end of March.

As that bill passed, Florida saw its biggest week of claims so far — 228,484 new applications — with layoffs in construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and other services industries, according to the Department of Labor.

Yardi Matrix, a research and data company, recently looked at which of the country’s largest 50 metro areas had the most jobs at-risk based on the sectors expected to see the biggest losses — lodging and hospitality, retail trade, mining, logging and construction.

Las Vegas, with a huge hospitality industry, was No. 1, with 49 percent of its jobs in the at-risk sectors. But four of the top six were in Florida: Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Miami and the southwest coast including Naples. An average of 39 percent of the jobs in those four cities are in at-risk sectors, the report found.

The Tampa Bay area ranked 11th, with 34 percent, or about 550,000 jobs, in those sectors. That’s not to say that all of those jobs will be lost — or that other sectors are safe — but it shows Florida’s vulnerabilities.

The federal stimulus package, including $600 a week for workers who lose their jobs, will help make up for some of the lost wages and provide cash to spend, wrote Paul Fiorilla, director of research at Yardi Matrix.