FLORIDA: AUGUST 17, 2020
Six months ago the U.S. and Canada started being affected by the CODID-19 virus and then the US-Canada border was eventually closed to everyone except essential services. The border is still closed and no one know when it will be re-opened. This could affect Florida tourism this coming tourist season.
Presently 16.1 million people are still collecting traditional unemployment benefits from their state. The unemployed had also been receiving the $600 a week in federal jobless aid on top of their state benefit. This $600 weekly payment has now expired and Congress and President Trump have failed to pass a new bill extending benefits and Congress has now adjourned while millions are out of work and businesses are closing because of the COVID-19 virus.
Even with a recent increase of 1.6 million new jobs for July, only 40% of the jobs originally lost because of the coronavirus have been recovered. An increase of cases of the virus in the South and the West has stopped a speedy economic recovery as bars, restaurants and other businesses have had to delay or reverse plans to reopen and rehire staff.
There are now some 23 million in the US who are at risk of being evicted from their homes because of non payment of rent. 31.3 million people are now receiving some form of unemployment benefits and 26% of people who were called back to work, reported being told that they might lose their jobs again if Congress fails to pass a second bill extending benefits.
In Florida, whose tourism industry has been most affected by the virus, Florida’s weekly unemployment aid is capped at $275 a week, so the unemployed were depending on the extra $600 which now is no longer available because of the inaction of Congress and President Trump.
