FLORIDA: Florida’s unemployment insurance trust fund, used to pay workers’ benefits after they are laid off, falls below the recommended level to meet obligations if unemployment begins rising again. If the current economic recovery faltered and unemployment again turned upward, Florida could have only eight months’ worth of benefits available and again might have to borrow from the federal government.
“Florida has a poorly financed program and one of the strictest programs in the country,” said Rick McHugh, unemployment insurance expert and lawyer for the National Employment Law Project, an advocate for the unemployed.The unemployment fund is financed by employers, who pay into it for each worker on their payrolls.
The unemployed have only the state’s fund to rely on for income while they search for jobs.There are no longer federal benefits to supplement state benefits in tough times; Congress let emergency benefits expire in 2014.The recommended level is 1.0, which is considered to be enough funds to pay for one full year of an average high level of benefit payouts.
State unemployment insurance trust funds are designed to be built up during good economic times to pay benefits to more people during bad times, according to an April report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. “But in many cases, the build-up during flush times doesn’t happen, or not enough to cover a deep downturn. And in the last recession, states paid the price,” the report says.
