ORLANDO, Fla. — Almost four months after the layoffs began, Central Florida continues to deal with a broken unemployment system and jobs that just have not returned.
According to state data, Orange County has had the most claims (208,824) but as a percentage of its workforce, Osceola County not only leads the region but also leads the state with 37% of its workforce filing unemployment claims.
READ: Florida reports more than 12,600 new COVID-19 cases
While the state has dumped millions into fixing its unemployment system, the state won’t say how many Floridians are still missing weeks of state or federal payments.
In total, Florida has paid out $9.7 billion in claims, however, most of that money ($7.4 billion) has come from the federal CARES Act, which expires at the end of July.
READ: ‘I was one of the first ones’: Woman says she’s received 1 unemployment check since mid-March
At the same time as benefits have slowly trickled out, Florida has remained an outlier among states, collecting $21.1 million in interest on its unemployment trust fund in the second quarter, earning almost $15 million more than California or Texas in the second quarter.
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