The requirement had been waived throughout the coronavirus pandemic when unemployment in the state skyrocketed to almost 14% as businesses closed in April of last year, according to the News Service of Florida.
By March of this year, Florida's unemployment rate was lower than 5%.
"Normally when you’re getting unemployment, the whole idea is that’s temporary, and you need to be looking for work to be able to get off unemployment," DeSantis announced at a news conference, the news service reported. "It was a disaster [at the beginning of the pandemic], so we suspended those job search requirements. I think it’s pretty clear now, we have an abundance of job openings."
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Florida’s unemployment rate persisted at 4.7 percent in March, representing 475,000 people out of work from a workforce of 10.17 million. The state Department of Economic Opportunity will issue an April report on May 21. The rate was 13.8 percent in April 2020, after the pandemic forced businesses to shut down or dramatically scale back.
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DeSantis suggested some employers have said they’ve fought to hire workers as their businesses open once again.
The governor signed the executive order waiving the work requirement last year and explained it will end May 29.
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"We suspended that last year at this time because, quite frankly, there weren’t jobs," he explained, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
"I think now we’re in just a different situation, you have a surplus of jobs, particularly in restaurant, lodging, hospitality, that people want to hire," he continued. "But we also just want to make sure, like, look, if you’re really unemployed, can’t get a job, that’s one thing. But making sure that you’re doing your due diligence to look for work, and making sure those incentives align better."
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Unemployed people would be asked to apply for at least five jobs a week to get the benefits.
Without the waiver, Florida, which has some of the lowest unemployment benefits in the country, needs people on unemployment to reach out to five prospective employers each week.
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The Florida Senate passed a bill (SB 1906) last month that would have increased maximum weekly payments from $275 to $375, added more weeks in which benefits would be open, and adjusted the work-search requirement. The proposal called for the number of job searches to cut to three a week for most people and to two a week for people living in counties with less than 75,000 residents.
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