ORLANDO, Fla. – Ill-equipped to handle the hundreds of thousands of applications a week from Floridians unable to work due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity is scrambling to hire people to meet the demand, including working with an outside vendor to increase staffing and adding a mobile-friendly application process.
However, for those going without pay, the improvements aren’t happening fast enough. For the benefit week ending March 21, 74,000 Floridians applied for unemployment benefits, a tenfold increase from the previous week, as the spread of the COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, caused businesses to shutter, laying off workers across the state.